The Fox and the Snake
by XYLag
Summary: Anko got into the task of training Naruto for the Academy, she was the first person to actually show interest towards him, and that made her a very good friend, but is that all they want to be?
1. Chapter 1

**Finally done with the rewrite, added stuff changed things, and finally it is here, it is not perfect, obviously, but I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

Anko walked through the busy streets of Konoha, the sun was setting painting the sky with tones of red and orange as it moved behind the mountains, she had just returned from a mission with her team, and after almost two weeks of only eating from military rations, decided to get some real food. She headed happily to the restaurant, trying her best to ignore the glares that were sent her way by the people around her. The walk to the restaurant was slow, as she was considerably tired, normally she would use the rooftops to get quickly to her destination, but this time out of tiredness an maybe a bit of laziness, decided to walk the streets, she was spaced out when some a kid basically crashed against her, the boy fell to the ground, and she was taken back to reality from her thoughts, she wasn't able to say one word, before the blonde boy got up and ran past her at full speed, well full speed for a kid his age, she let out a small chuckle as she saw the boy run away, since she could easily catch up to him, but the boy probably already had his hands full, she recognized him, the boy was the Kyubi's container, constantly being bullied and neglected by everyone, she didn't knew him though, she had seen him some times before, most of the time running away from an angry mob, once she left some food at the doorstep of his home, if that dump could be called that, she could only hoped he got it, as far as she knew he was alone, except for some visits from the Hokage, she had though of talking to him, see how he was holding, but every time she stopped, she wouldn't even knew what to tell to a boy that was all alone, sure she was alone too, but she at least had friends to support her, and even then she hadn't been always alone, the shunning had started after his former sensei, Orochimaru, left the village, that left her with a bad reputation, but with the kid, it was different, he had been always alone, with no real contact with other people, all this thoughts raced her mind as she saw a large group turning around the corner.

"Get him!" a villager screamed, again pulling her out of her thoughts, it was history repeating again, didn't they get bored of doing that everyday? The angry mob followed the kid through the main road; she just let out a sigh as she continued walking

…

"Home sweet home" Anko mumbled to herself unlocking the door of her home and entering, she stood on the doorstep and took a deep breath, inhaling the air of the inside, she turned the lights on, illuminating the interior, she had just acquired the place after saving her money by doing several high ranked missions and it was big, she had more space than she needed; which she found nice, it had three fully furnished bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a nice spacious living room that was annexed with a nice kitchen, Anko removed her trench coat letting it fall besides her slamming the door shut with her foot, she got close to the sofa and let herself fall she turned on the TV, which she rarely watched, but she liked having one, especially one as big as that one, she usually just liked having it on as background noise, she stared at the TV switching un amused through the channels until she found something interesting, and there she stayed for hours, it wasn't until past midnight, around two in the morning she got up and went to bed, laying comfortably on top of the sheets, she stared at the roof, suddenly remembering the blonde kid, was there really nothing anyone could do to help him? Suddenly an idea popped on her mind, "that could work" she though with a smirk "Ah crap, I need the Hokage's permission…. I'll talk to him tomorrow." The thoughts crossed her mind as she slowly fell asleep.

…

"Come in" Hiruzen said as he rubbed his temples and raised his gaze from the huge stack of papers he had let to gather for the last few days.

Anko stepped inside bowing slightly. "I can come back later if you're busy right now" Anko said raising an eyebrow at the massive stack of papers on the desk.

"Oh this? Its nothing" he said chuckling as he signaled her to take a seat in front of him. "Now tell me Anko, what can I do for you?"

"Uhm, wow, how do I put this? Uhm…Do you know the little blonde kid, the Kyubi's container, the one that always paints your face on the monument?" Anko said as she pointed into the general direction of the monument, sure that would make him realize, obviously, whom she was talking about.

"Naruto? Yes, why? Oh god, don't tell me you killed him!" Hizuren said in an alarming tone.

"WHAT!? No, I- I…was just wondering, you know he's all alone and he's ignored by almost everyone, kind of like me…" she said chuckling sadly "…and I though that maybe if its okay I could train him for the academy, I'm sure there won't be any teacher that would really prepare him for it, I know that I'm still a chunin, so I shouldn't be able to have my own student, but I can be like a tutor, and maybe he stay at my place."

"I see" Hiruzen said scratching his chin, looking at her for a few moments.

"Well I really don't see why not, sure it's often needed to be a jonin, but that's not actually necessary, as long as I say so." He said with a grin. "But I want to ask you something first, and I really want you to think before you answer." Hiruzen said as he stood up and walked towards the window, looking at the village. "Why?"

"Uhm, well he's alone?" she said with a confused look on her face.

"Hmm…I don't think you understand, see…I just want to be sure that you're doing this for the right reasons, having someone in your care is a great responsibility, it's not like having a pet, are you sure that this is really what you want?"

"Yes" she responded firmly.

"Very good" Hiruzen said turning around to see her "Why?"

Anko stood in silence as she though about it. "When, Orochimaru left the village…" she started with a sigh "…everyone started to distance themselves from me, at first it was like a mild negligence, only paying attention when it was really important, I just shrugged it off, I really didn't cared, but after a while, well, rumors start to get around, and you start to get this…this looks, and it starts to get to you, not being able to talk to anyone, being alone, ignored, all out of some foolish fear." She took a deep breath and walked towards a window. "I must say, that at times I though about deserting too, and I probably would have, if it hadn't been for Kurenai…" she smiled and looked at the Hokage straight in the eyes. "… I can't imagine what the kid, Naruto, must be feeling right now, but if there is anything I can do to help him I will."

Hiruzen smiled, he was satisfied with her answer; he opened a drawer and took out a small scroll.

"The address and information you need is in there." Hiruzen said with an ear-to-ear smile. "I know you'll do a great job."

"Thanks" Anko said scratching the back of her head; with some tears forming on her eyes, she bowed and left the office intending to head to the address on the scroll.

"Well, that was unexpected, but maybe its for the good, May god help that kid" Hiruzen though to himself with a grin on his face, sitting down on his chair and lighting his pipe.

"More paperwork Hokage-sama" said his assistance as she entered the office carrying a pile of documents.

"Godammit!" Hiruzen yelled.

…

Anko made her way to the address she was given, moving skillfully through the rooftops, until she finally reached her destination, she dropped down to the dark dirty streets, she was now on the slumps, near the eastern wall, the whole complex looked deserted, the walls were stained, the paint falling off and graffiti was all over the place, the few "houses" she saw had no doors and the windows were shattered, and barred with pieces of wood, overall the place looked pretty messed up, it was dirty and vandalized, the dark side of good ol' Konoha, however she continued her way inside the district, she had pass through it several times, and knew which alley steer clear from, it was never pleasant to get though there, she reached the building and climbed through the stairs, ignoring the rats that ran away from her.

"Looks like this is it," she though while she looked at the disgusting look of the place. "How can anyone actually live on a place like this?" she though sitting down cross-legged on the dirty floor "and now…how do I do this?" she crossed her arms on her chest and closed her eyes as she though about the best way to proceed.

After several minutes of though she gave up, and with a heavy sight knocked on the door, although there was no response, she heard noise coming from the inside, meaning there was someone inside, or rats, probably both, she knocked again, getting no answer, again, but she wasn't one to give up, especially considering she was already there, so she continued until finally there was a response other from noise.

"What do you want?" she heard faintly from the other side.

"Come on kid, open the door" she said again trying to sound as nice a possible, she wasn't good at that, since most of the time she enjoyed being alone, and was rather unpleasant to be with.

Hearing no response Anko took a deep breath as she though about her possible next move, examining what she knew of the kid, neglected from everyone his entire life and obvious trust issues, that was a hard one…especially for someone like her, who lacked the necessary…social skills.

"I won't hurt you, okay?" she said hesitantly "Why would you say that!?" she yelled internally to herself, face palming.

"You won't?"

She was surprised by the response "Progress!" she cheered mentally. "Of course I won't, I'm here to help you."

She heard the door unlocking, and took another deep breath "Remember, first impressions are important, just keep it cool…" she repeated mentally, as she waited for the door to open, the boy opened the door halfway only showing part of his face, the door was held by a chain from the inside, as soon as he laid eyes on her he shut the door closed, leaving her with the words in her mouth.

Now she was loosing her patience, which she didn't had much to begin with. She was about to kick the door open when she stopped and face palmed herself "Yeah, great way to earn his trust, just kick his damn door open." She muttered sarcastically to herself.

"Look kid, I'm here to help you out, but I can't really do that from out here."

The door opened again this time he let the door open completely, allowing her to see the interior of the messy apartment.

"Hello Naruto" she said smiling and ignoring the overall messiness of the place. "I'm Anko, can I come in?"

Naruto stepped out of the way allowing her to enter and see more clearly the mess of home he had, the windows were broken, newspapers carpeting the walls and windows to cover the holes on them, it was dark, except for a small light bulb at the end of the room, dirty with tons of garbage on the floor, indeed there were several rats, there was an intense smell coming from the inside, but she did her best to ignore it. She shifted her attention to the boy in front of her, Naruto had a torn orange jumpsuit, had some scratches and bruises on his face and arms, but they looked to be healing properly, he was pretty skinny not enough to be life threatening, but obviously below average, how he managed to escape the angry mobs of villagers with that body, would remain a mystery to her.

"Wh- Why are you here? Naruto asked walking backwards slowly towards the bed, if that old torn mattress could be called a bed, taking her from her thoughts.

"Well, tell me Naruto, do you want to become a ninja?" she asked sitting on the floor.

He nodded in silence.

"Well today's your lucky day, you will have the honor of being my student, well, something like that, but with my help you will become the most kick-ass ninja in the village, after me of course" she said standing up grinning and giving him a thumbs up.

"Why?" he asked.

"Why what?" she asked back confused.

"Why me?" he said.

"Well, we're not so different, you an I, we are both outcasts, in a way, so we need to stick together." she said walking to the door and looking back at him. "You…can stay with me at my place, that way it will be easier for you to stay in touch with me, and for me to keep an eye on you, I've got two empty bedrooms, that are barely used and well, it would be fun" she smiled. "Unless of course you'd rather stay here."

Naruto's eyes opened in both excitement and confusion "Really? I mean, are you sure its not a problem?" he asked getting closer.

"Its quite alright" she said as she opened the door to let the air flow, so she could get some fresh air and leaning on the door frame. "Get everything you need, but, leave the clothes, we will fix that right away."

"Awesome" he said as he started gathering his things on an old blue backpack. Naruto was very happy, he was always alone, and now he not only got someone to train him, but he would stay in her house, he had to make sure not to mess that up.

Naruto grabbed his bag and walked out and locked the door behind him, he started following her new sensei down the stairs and to the streets, this was the change he had always hoped for.

…

The whole afternoon was spent on getting him decent clothing and gear, he had discarded his hideous orange outfit and was now dressed in a tight long sleeved black shirt, navy blue cargo pants with a camouflaged design and knee high, black shinobi sandals, which he felt kind of uncomfortable with, he didn't like having his toes un covered, overall he felt weird on those clothes, mostly because they fit him, he had never wore clothes his size, most of them were either too big, or too small, so having clothing that fit him fine was…strange.

Regarding gear, he had no clue of what Anko had gotten for him, she told him to wait while she got the necessary gear for him, and he had not a clue about what he would need so he just let her do her work. They were now sitting on a nice restaurant, and they had just finished their food. "Now, let me explain you how this is going to work" Anko said clearing her throat and sitting straight on her chair. "We have a little bit more than two years until the academy starts, yes? But, let's face it, you're on pretty bad shape, I take it you've never trained before right?" she asked.

Naruto shook his head.

"Right, and you don't get too much…food," she continued resting her head on her hand.

"Sometimes I get instant ramen," he said smiling.

"Yeah…that won't cut it anymore" she chuckled "you need some real food, and I'm going to give it to you, that's the first step of your training…getting some fat on that messed up body of yours."

Naruto's raised an eyebrow "That's my training? Eating? That's going to be easy."

"Enjoy it while you can kid, that's only the first part, after that, you won't even have the strength to eat" Anko said grinning sinisterly sending shivers down his spine.

"But don't worry, you'll be a hell of a ninja when I'm done with you." she said

ONE MONTH LATER

Anko woke up slowly as the first rays of the sunrise struck her face from the window. "Stupid sun" she mumbled before letting out a deep yawn as she covered her eyes with her hand and rolled on the bed facing the door. She forced herself to uncover herself and get up, sitting on the side of the bed for a few minutes scratching her head and stretching her arms, until finally she got up, she went to check on Naruto who had been staying with her for a month now, the kid was alright, a bit noisy, and a prankster, he got on her nerves from time to time, but it was nothing she couldn't handle with patience, and a bit of brute force, mostly brute force; he was still sleeping peacefully, drooling all over his pillow, she walked over to the bathroom and took a quick cold shower in order to wake up completely, getting dressed with her usual training clothes she walked back to his room in order to wake him up.

She looked at his door, and took a deep breath. "Wake up!" she yelled as she slammed opened Naruto's door and shook him as he lied in bed "Its time to start your training." She said excitedly before heading into the kitchen to get something to drink.

Naruto opened his eyes and sat on the bed with a yawn, he goofily grabbed his clothes and put them on, the last month he really got some tasty food, and he quickly gained some weight, I was safe to say that he looked more healthy now.

He went into the living room and stared at Anko with a still sleepy look, Anko stared at his face for a few seconds and splashed water on his face.

"What was that for!?" Naruto yelled drying his face.

"I wanted to make sure you were awake," she said smiling "lets go."

Both of them left the house and walked for a few minutes through the still empty streets, the sun was getting higher from behind the mountains and they could already feel its warm, as the clouds moved out of his way, they reached a training field, were they established themselves.

"Alright kid, its time for the real thing." she said to Naruto who was sitting cross-legged on the grass "but before teaching you anything we need to strengthen that lazy body of yours… so, run a hundred laps around the field, , 200 sit ups, 200 push ups, see that log over there? Hit it with your fists for an hour, and kick it, also an hour, you can do it in the order you want, but you're not leaving this place until you finish" she said as she walked past him.

"What? That's too much, sensei" Naruto said standing up.

"Oh, yeah almost forgot" Anko said taking out a scroll and unsealing it, releasing a green vest, similar to the ones the chunin used, but this one had no pouches and it was bulkier. Naruto put it on and Anko forming a half ram seal with her right hand pressed her left hand on his chest, making the vest heavier. Naruto gave her a weird look. "What? Its only 25 extra pounds, and I'll be increasing it, so do get too comfy with the weight, and I'll add some wrist and ankle bands when I think you're ready."

Naruto sighed as he realized that he wouldn't make her change her mind and got to the task at hand…

…

Nearly 11 hours passed and Naruto had finished his intense and torturous routine, he was sweating heavily and panting as he tried to get fresh air into his lungs, he looked around for his sensei, and saw her on a branch from a nearby tree, reading.

"I'm done, Anko-sensei" Naruto said between pants, letting himself fall on his back still struggling for breath, unzipping the heavy vest, Anko let herself fall in front of him and threw a bottle of water at him "Okay, now that the warm up is over, lets get to the real training"

"Warmup?" Naruto said worried, "You're kidding right?"

Anko gave a good look to the boy, and well, she felt kind of sorry for him. "Well…not really, but, you did finished way before I anticipated, I expected to be here until past midnight, I'll let you loose for the rest of the day, but only this time, tomorrow, you better be ready for the real training." she said with a very serious face.

"Thank you…sensei" Naruto said with a smile as he got up and removed the vest, while drinking the water at alarming speeds.

"Wow, watch it there kid, I don't want you to drown just because you can't handle your thirst" she laughed as she helped him get the vest off, and sealed it again.

"Well, we now have the rest of the day…so, let's get cleaned up and eat something, what do you say?" she asked gathering her things into the backpack.

"Sounds good" he replied.

They walked back to her apartment, well Anko walked, Naruto was more like dragging himself through the streets, it had gotten cloudy, thing Naruto really appreciated, as it came with a soft breeze that felt really good against his sweaty clothes; they reached the apartment and both of them got cleaned up and changed before leaving again.

"Naruto, I want you to go to the library and check out taijutsu styles you feel comfortable with, or that just get your attention. I won't be teaching them to you just yet, but it will help me get familiarized with them if I'm not already, so that way I can train you better" Anko said as they arrived to the restaurant.

"I can't" Naruto said lowering his head.

"Can't? What do you mean you can't?" Anko asked very seriously.

"They don't let me enter to the library, they threaten to kick me out me every time I show up."

"WHAT!? Oh, that's complete bullshit come on" Anko yelled as she dragged Naruto out of the restaurant and headed to the library. "But…we haven't eaten yet" Naruto mumbled with a sweat drop as he was carried away.

…

"Alright, go on inside" She said

"They won't let me in" Naruto insisted clearly not amused about the whole idea.

"Trust me, It'll be worth it" she said with a grin.

Naruto sighed and got inside, just as he predicted he was about to pass by the reception and she stopped him right on his tracks, he was already being dragged, yet again outside, but just at that time Anko walked inside.

"Hey what's going on?" Anko said casually.

"Oh, nothing just taking out the trash" the receptionist said a she dragged Naruto, who had a grumpy look on his face as he looked back at her sensei, to the front door.

"I hope, you're not referring to my student" Anko said releasing her ki sending shivers down the receptionist's spine.

"I-uh-no- of course not, please carry on." she said trembling as she returned behind her desk.

They walked through the library until they reached the section with taijutsu and fighting styles.

"All right, check some of them out." Anko said looking at the tall shelves. "It's really being a while since I last entered this place." She commented, mostly to herself as she inspectional the tall wooden shelves

"Uhm, Anko-sensei I-"

"You don't need to call me sensei all the time, just when we are practicing" she interrupted.

"Right, uh, well, I can't read." He said with a small smile.

"You kiddin' right?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Nope" Naruto said shaking his head with a small smile.

"Well…bummer" she said as she scratched her chin. "I'll get some basic styles for you and I'll explain them to you, and maybe get you to read some of this books"

Naruto nodded as Anko handed him several books until he was carrying more than twenty and barely managed to place them on a nearby table as she opened one of them and started reading.

Anko and Naruto stayed there all the rest of the afternoon, looking for suitable taijutsu styles, and eventually moving on to ninjutsu, and thanks to Anko's jonin rank he could see even more material.

"So, any style that strikes your attention?" she said with a yawn, she really didn't liked reading, it made her feel goofy and sleepy.

There was no response, so she looked over her book, to see Naruto sleeping, she chuckled softly, it didn't surprised her, he had a rough day, she grabbed most of the books and sealed them on a scroll, and left the rest where they were.

She carried Naruto all the way back, and left him on his bed, good thing he changed before going to "eat" or he would really stink, she however liked to take a bath before sleeping, so she got the water running and stepped in adjusting the water until it was warm, she felt the pressure of the hot water massaging her back, she grabbed her left shoulder were her cursed seal was and gritted her teeth, every once in a while it the seal sort of got active and sent intense waves of pain from her shoulder, she got out of the shower and got dressed, trying to ignore the sharp pain on her shoulder, she walked to her room and fell asleep minutes after getting in.

…

A thunderstorm got loose during the night, waking Naruto from his peaceful sleep, at first he tried to ignore it, but a loud one finally made him get up, he had been scared of thunders all his life, and living alone in his apartment he had no choice but to suck it up and hope the storm didn't lasted long.

But thankfully, he wasn't alone anymore, he slowly got out of the room and headed to Anko's room, the thunders illuminating with a pale light the corridor as he approached the door, he knocked softly at it, and having no response he peeked inside.

"Anko-san?" Naruto called as he approached her bed.

"Anko-san?" He called again placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Hmm, what is it kid?" she responded half asleep with only on eye open.

"There is a thunderstorm, and I wondered if I could…"

"Sleep with me?" Anko said finishing his sentence for him automatically. "Sure, come on"

Naruto slipped into her bed "thank you Anko-san" he said as he tried to accommodate himself.

"No worries kid, try and rest, we have much to do in the morning, and you know you don't need to use honorifics with me" she said giving him an over the shoulder look.

"Good night Anko"

Anko smiled "Good night kid."

…

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

Naruto endured the torturous training regime Anko gave him, she was really crazy, he trained more than twelve hours daily, only stopping to eat and get some water, but he slowly started getting used to the physical strain the training gave to his body, after a month she forced him to use the wrist and ankle bands permanently, and she constantly raised the weight, but the change was so minimal that barely felt the change, but the increase was steady, and it helped him fortify his body, even when not training, and even then, they did not bothered him, they looked like gauntlets and boots, they where black and reached his elbow and knees, they were bandaged from the wrist to the elbow and from the ankles to the shin, respectively. Most of the time they were under his shirt and pants, so they did not attract too much attention.

Naruto was walking with Anko to the training camp, he was really exited, finally she was going to start teaching him taijutsu, and probably the most important thing, he finally learned how to read and write, during their daily visits to the public library she would give him books to try and read.

Anyways, they reached the camp and Anko spoke to him. "Alright, this is probably what you were waiting for right?" she said signaling him to get closer.

"Well, yeah" he responded nodding excitedly.

"Do you have any suggestions, or should I start from scratch?" she asked.

"I checked some fighting styles out…" he started, pulling out some books from his backpack. " here, the Kitsune Sempu, seems pretty good for extended combats, focusing mostly on defense and countering with grapples and throws better suited for encounters when you are in disadvantage, and Raiba, good for quick strikes, depending mostly on speedy movements to confuse the enemy and get close. End the fight before it starts; I think that if we can get to a middle ground I will be set on taijutsu.

Anko listened closely to what the young blonde was telling her, she was very surprised, obviously the kid was smarter than he appeared on first sight, his analysis of the two styles was very good, and it was true, if he got the techniques to a high enough level, he would be a though opponent to beat, but she had to get him on the basics first, and that included…chakra control.

"Good analysis, but fighting is not only about knowing how it works, its about "it" becoming a part of yourself, it must come as natural as breathing. Besides, it will be of no use it you don't have proper chakra control."

"Chakra control?" he asked confused, "what does chakra has to do with fighting?"

She sighed rubbing her temples and walked over to a nearby tree. "Chakra control, my naïve student is the difference between this" she said hitting the tree, breaking a bit of the tree's bark "and this. "She hit the tree again, this time leaving a crater where her fist smashed the tree.

Naruto looked amazed at the display that played in front of him.

"See? Chakra is not only used for ninjutsu and genjutsu, you will use it to improve your physical abilities while on combat, and that is what I must teach you first."

Naruto nodded in response, ready for whatever she threw his way.

"Very good, now I want you to sit right here, and focus on gathering chakra, now I know is sounds boring…which it actually is…" she said with a chuckle "But it's important stuff, and you be getting the hang of it, becoming easier the more you practice, so do your best."

"Gather chakra…how do I know if it's working?"

"You'll know, I'm sorry kid, its kind of hard to explain, you will feel a warm sensation, or something like that, it's like meditating, but more active."

Naruto sat cross-legged on the grass which was still humid from last night's rain, and took a deep breath, his hands resting on his legs as he focused on his breathing, Anko had been teaching him how to meditate for a while, he closed his eyes and tried to focus his chakra.

Naruto sat silently, trying his best to focus. "Just remember how she told you" he repeated to himself as he felt he made no progress. After the first hour or so he did not felt anything, and wasn't very sure he was doing it properly, then he decided to change a bit the process, instead of just "feeling" his chakra running through him, he created a mental image of himself, and tried to picture his chakra going to different parts of his body, mostly like a dim light illuminating his body, at first there was nothing but his dark silhouette, and after some time he felt something in his chest, it was a warm sensation, he immediately pictured it on his mind, like a small flame on his chest and focused on his hands, slowly but surely he felt the warm sensation moving through his body to his hands, the flame moving to his hands.

He concentrated harder he felt a slight tingling first, as his followed by a warm sensation, the dim light became brighter as he focused on his hands, the tingling turning into a weird sensation, he could feel how the energy moved on his hand, he unconsciously smiled and open his eyes, only to surprised that the sun was already setting.

"What?" he said softly to himself.

"You took your sweet time didn't you?" he heard from behind, he turned and saw Anko sitting behind him.

"Uhm, well…sorry?" he replied with a nervous smile.

Anko let out a sigh, as she scratched the back of her head, she signaled him to follow her, until they reached a large tree.

"Ok, chakra control, you're going to climb that tree" she said pointing to the tree behind her.

"Piece of cake" Naruto said rushing towards the tree.

"Hold on" Anko said grabbing him from the collar of his shirt stopping the boy dead on his tracks. "You're going to do it like this" she walked towards the tree and started walking vertically on the tree, and stopped when she was upside down on one of the top branches.

"You need to gather your chakra on the soles of your feet, just concentrate, it's not as hard as it seems"

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes for a bit projecting a mental image of him gathering his chakra on his feet and then started walking, he gave a few steps before the tree crust shattered, making him fall down.

"Dammit" Naruto muttered standing back up.

"You need to use the exact amount of chakra, too little and you won't stick, to much and you'll shatter the crust making you fall." Anko said dropping back to the ground.

"Now go on and take this" she said giving him a kunai "use it to mark the tree when you feel you're falling, we won't leave until you reach the branch I was in" she said sitting down.

The lights of the streets turned on, illuminating faintly the sides of the street, a cool breeze started to blow, there was a crescent moon illuminating faintly the field, and Anko was sleeping still under tree several dango sticks embedded on the tree and floor around her, she was snoring softly, when she heard yelling, immediately getting up to discover the source of the yelling.

"Ha, I did it!" yelled Naruto from the top of the tree, the kunai embedded to the highest point of the tree.

"Yeah, yeah, you make me proud and all that crap, now get down here so we can go back." Anko said packing her stuff.

Naruto jumped down and followed her sensei back to her apartment, all the way with a smile on his face.

…

FOUR MONTHS LATER

"Were are we going?" Naruto asked walking steadily at Anko's side with his arms over his head.

"Since you've mastered tree climbing and water walking already, and you have learned the basics of taijutsu, I though about training on my favorite place to train" Anko replied with a weird smirk on her face that made Naruto nervous.

They walked for a while until they reached a huge metallic fence "Welcome, Naruto, to training camp 44, better known as The Forest of Death"

Naruto looked through the massive fence into the deep darkness of the forest before looking back at Anko with a worried expression, she seemed to be pleased with his reaction.

She pressed her hand on the chain fence and opened one of the gates, stepping inside with Naruto and locking the gate from the inside.

"Stay close, you don't want to get lost in here" she said smiling grimly at him, to which he only nodded nervous in agreement

They jumped from branch to branch for what appeared to be an endless forest; everything looked the same to Naruto, except maybe for the occasional fallen tree or small river running through, there was a certain feeling around, like he was constantly watched, and that made him feel uneasy, and even more nervous made him the fact that even though it was daytime the forest appeared to be in penumbra, only some specks of light coming in from the tops of the trees moving with the wind.

Eventually they reached a clearing with a large rock on the center. She left her stuff near the huge rock and removed her trench coat.

"All right" she started breaking the silence "it's time to teach you how to fight" she asked him removing her overcoat.

"YEAAH!" Naruto replied exited getting closer to her.

"Let's start with the basics: blocking and dodging" she said before suddenly charging at him.

Naruto was taken by surprise with the sudden aggression and stepped back dodging a series of punches, even having the need to jump back creating more space between the two of them, she charged again with an overhead kick that he blocked with his forearm, but the force sent him into the floor, barely having any chance to react as Anko jumped at him smashing her knee where his head was, he tried to hit her with a left punch, but she ducked and did a sweep with her leg, making his loose his balance, she got close to him and punched him on the chest, making him fall to the ground, again.

"Not bad" she said clapping her hands. "Again" she said getting into stance with a serious smirk.

…

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu" she inhaled deeply and released a massive fire ball that was moving fast towards Naruto, he jumped to a nearby tree to avoid the hit, but lost sight of Anko, who appeared behind him and kicked him in the back, he landed on a nearby tree branch, only to see her already in front of him, she tried to kick him, before he landed, but he twisted his body, evading the kick, he landed hard behind her, he spun around and tackled her down the tree, both of them smashing hard into the hard ground.

He got up as fast as he could, he ignored the pain on his shoulder, he saw her already getting up, stetching her neck, he tried to hit her before she got back into stance, but she dodged the blow easily by ducking, she turned around and got close to him, cutting the distance between them in a split second, she started throwing punches and kicks, that quickly overwhelmed him and made him fall to the ground.

"Yield?" Naruto said as he sat back up.

"Anko rolled her eyes," Fine she said extending her hand to help him up.

"Damn" Naruto said as he rubbed his bruised back.

"Don't fell bad with yourself, you're doing pretty well, four hours in and you are already dodging my attacks." She complimented hitting him on the shoulder playfully making him wince from the pain.

"But, you're not fighting seriously, what point does it makes then?" he said now rubbing his shoulder.

"You must learn to walk before running," she said sitting down on the ground. "What are you doing?" she asked cuiously, seeing Naruto standing in front of her.

"Again" he said with a determined look as he prepared his stance.

Anko couldn't help but smile as she got up "Now that's the Naruto I know" she said before charging at him.

…

Naruto fell to the ground, panting heavily, again defeated by Anko "Dammit" Naruto muttered.

"Hey don't feel bad, you're doing pretty good" she said sitting down cross-legged. "You already got the hang of it, a few more weeks of sparring and we can start to look into those styles you wanted, maybe compliment them with some cool ninjutsu, but we'll see that later. Now it's getting dark so, we should head back, the forest is not a pretty place at night".

"It isn't pretty during the day either" he said getting up.

"True that, let's get back, I'm hungry."

…

7 MONTHS LATER

Anko and Naruto had just finished their spar match, and again, as usual Anko won, not that Naruto's skills were bad, right now he was surely above everyone he would meet at the academy, but still she was better.

"Alright kid, you did good, you have good chakra control, your taijutsu has a few flaws, but with enough practice you'll fix them up, ninjutsu above average, I like that water technique, by the way, very neat, all-in-all…you have very good skills." Anko chuckled at the last remark "You're almost ready for the academy" she said with a smile.

"Thank you Anko" said Naruto as he bowed

"Well kid, academy is still a few months ahead, and I have several techniques that could be quite useful for you, well they will be useful after you finish the academy, but we have time, so let's get to it." she said giving him a thumbs up.

"Look here, this is a B-Ranked jutsu, it is supposed to be a secret jutsu, but reality is, it's fairly easy to come up with it. Pay attention" she said doing the tiger seal "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

There was a small puff of smoke, and from it came out an exact copy of Anko.

"That's it?" Naruto said not impressed "I can create clones too." He said creating several copies behind him.

"Well yes you can, but this clones are special. You see these are not mere illusions…" she started dispelling the clone "…these clones a very much real, they can hit and be hit, but their most usefull skill is that they transfer their experience to the user, this makes them very usefull in stealth and infiltration missions."

"So, you think I'll be good in those types of missions?" he asked getting exited.

"Uhm, nope, you're way to noisy for that" she responded disappointing him. "But, you have large amounts of chakra, which means you could probably create quite a few at once, lets say you have to read two books, if you create two clones and put them to read said books, when they disappear, all the knowledge they gathered will get to you, the same goes with learning jutsus, not quite usefull with physical training, that goes on your own, but that ability is very good when you have a lot to do and little time." She finished crossing her arms on her chest.

"And you will teach me that technique?"

"Of course" she sais slapping him softly on the head "Do you think I explained that just for fun? Now look, to create a shadow clone you must…"

FIVE MONTHS LATER

It was finally the day to get into the Academy, and Anko was walking with Naruto towards the building, they walked in silence, Naruto wasn't that nervous, Anko taught him well, she taught him things that were far above his rank, specially considering that he had no rank yet, so he was well prepared, they kept walking until they reached the large building.

"Well this is it, isn't it?" she said standing in front of the gates. "It's been a while, stupid academy." She said

"Uh, Anko?" Naruto said reaching to her.

"What is it kid" Anko asked turning around and placing her hands on her hips.

"I was wondering if I could still live with you at your place, only if you don't mind" he asked kind of ashamed.

"Uh yeah?, what made you think that you'll have to leave?" she said kneeling and placing her hand on his head.

"Go on, you don't want to be late on your first day" she said giving him a friendly hit on the shoulder.

TWO YEARS LATER

"Please be quiet" Iruka said as he stepped into the middle of the room "First let me congratulate you all for graduating, you're all genin now, you make me very proud, now all of you will be placed in teams that will be led by a jonin instructior, but before announcing the teams let me announce the top rookie of this generation.

Hearing this everyone sat down and kept quiet, this was what most of them had been training and waiting for, most of them were expecting the top rookie to be Sasuke Uchiha, since well, he was an Uchiha, and his abilities were really good, and all the girls just melted around him, most of the guys didn't liked him, mostly because of his attitude.

"The top rookie is…" Iruka started, building the tension in the room. "Well…who would have though, the rookie of the generation is Naruto Uzumaki"

The young Uchiha gave him a death glare while everyone else got close to him to congratulate him about it.

"Okay, okay, calm down" Iruka said, "Now I will tell you your teams."

And so, Iruka started naming people into their respective teams.

"Team Seven" Iruka began "Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, and Naruto Uzumaki, you are to report to room 205 to meet your jonin instructor."

…

All three of them waited for Iruka to finish naming the teams and headed to the instructed room.

…

"Where the hell is he?" Naruto asked leaning back on the chair he was seated.

"How troublesome" Shikamaru said waking up from his sleep, and looking at Naruto.

"Y-you should be more patient N-Naruto-kun" said the shy Hinata looking at her desk.

Suddenly the door opening and a white haired man with his face and left eye covered came in.

"You're late" Naruto yelled pointing at him.

"Yeah…" was all he replied with an eye smile "I got distracted by a bird on the way here, come with me" with that said he motioned them to follow him.

"W-where are we going" Hinata asked.

"You'll see" was all the jonin replied.

They arrive to one of the rooftops of the academy, with a nice view of the village and they sat in a semi circle around their new sensei.

"So I want you to introduce yourself, like…your likes, dislikes hobbies, dreams, that kind of thing."

"Why don't you do it first?" Shikamaru said as he rested his head on his hand with a bored expression.

"All right" the jonin replied lazily "My name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes, hmm, I have no hobbies that might interest you and dreams, well I'll know when I get there."

The trio sweat dropped. "Well now is your turn" Kakashi said pointing at Naruto

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like eating and training to become stronger, I don't like people that think that they are better than others just because they belong to a clan, as for my dream I will become the most bass ass Hokage you'll ever know." he finished with his thumb up.

"Hmm, so he's the number one rookie, he has spirit, he will get far, with proper training, but I guess you already took care of that, eh Anko-chan?" he though looking at Shikamaru, signaling him it was his turn.

"How troublesome"

Shikamaru exhaled "My name is Shikamaru Nara, I like to sleep, watch the clouds and play Shougi, I don't like troublesome people or situations that make me struggle, as for my dreams I don't know, I want to marry a regular girl who isn't too ugly and not too pretty. Have two children, first a girl, then a boy. Retire after my daughter is married and my son becomes a successful ninja, and spend the rest of my life playing shōgi or Go. Then die of old age before my wife."

All of them stare at the Nara "That was rather…detailed" Kakashi said eye smiling.

"As lazy as every Nara I know" he though.

"I guess its okay to have a plan for life, now the last one" Kakashi said as he looked over to Hinata.

"I-uhm my name is Hinata Hyuuga, I like- I like training" she stuttered playing with a strand of her hair "I don't like people that call others weak for no reason."

"Well, well a humble Hyuuga, that really is something out of the ordinary." Kakashi though.

"My hobbies are making medicinal ointments and pressing flowers, my dream, I hope to one day have more confidence and become a fair leader on my clan." She said looking at the floor.

"Very good, that's it with introductions, we will get to know each other better with time. Now, there is something you should know, a genin's life is not particularly…glamorous, you'll have to do some demeaning chores, and from time to time you'll get an interesting mission" Kakashi said.

"How troublesome" Shikamaru commented, "if I wanted to do chores I would have stayed at home…so what do we have to do today?" he finished.

"Nothing, rest and meet me tomorrow in training camp 4 at six o'clock sharp, I have an interesting test for you, and one thing, don't take breakfast." He said

"W-why?" Hinata asked nervously.

"You'll throw up" he said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Well that's not nice" Naruto said getting up "So what are you guys going to do today?" Naruto asked.

"I have to get home and make my chores or my mother won't leave me alone." Shikamaru said getting up lazily.

"What about you Hinata?"

"I- uh, I have to get home." she said blushing and looking down.

"I see, well, then I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow" he said jumping over the railing and into the streets.

Naruto walked down to the streets, wondering about that special test Kakashi was planning, I literally could be anything, he was deep in his thoughts until he heard his name being called from behind..

"Oh crap" Naruto though recognizing the voice behind him. He turned around to see Sasuke Uchiha walking determined towards him.

"I want to fight you," he said bluntly.

"Maybe some other time man, I'm kind of busy right now." Naruto said smiling trying to be as nice as possible.

"Now!" the Uchiha said grabbing him from the shoulder.

Naruto turned and kicked him clean on the chest sending him backwards.

Naruto exhaled scratching the back of his head "Damn, I'm sorry man, I'm just a bit tired today." He said extending his hand to help him up.

He pushed his hand aside getting up in a jump. "So what, that's your excuse? Why don't you just admit that you're scared to fight me?"

"I'm not scared, I remember beating you a few times during our training sessions."

"That was just luck" he replied dryly.

"You won't back down will you?" Naruto said in a not amused tone. Getting only a stare in return.

"Alright man, you want a fight, I'll give you a fight, come one"

…

Naruto and Sasuke walked to an empty training camp.

"Okay, so taijutsu only?" Naruto asked not sure of how to proceed.

"I can beat you anyway you want" the Uchiha said getting into stance.

"Okay" Naruto though getting to into stance.

Sasuke charged him head on, doing an overhead kick, which Naruto easily dodged, but he was kicked on the head when he gave another kick using the momentum of the first sending him to the ground, the Uchiha simply chucked.

Naruto got up rubbing his head before getting into stance again, taking a deep breath, waiting for the next attack, Sasuke charged again this time with a sweep, Naruto jumped over him and kicked him on the back sending him forward, Sasuke turned around and gave him a volley of punches which Naruto easily dodged blocked and redirect using his still in progress Kitsune Sempu Style, he got close to him and hit him hard on the cheek, and before Sasuke could recover Naruto kicked him on the stomach and twisting his body as if doing a handspring he kicked him again on the chin sending him up.

"What do I do now?" Naruto though quickly as that move had never worked against Anko, he simply jumped and grabbing him from the shoulders he slammed him on the ground quickly stepping back.

Sasuke got up slowly he had blood coming from his mouth and nose, and he started performing hand seals.

"Hey we agreed only taijutsu!" Naruto yelled at him.

"I don't have to listen to a loser." Sasuke growled.

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu

Naruto jumped over the massive fireball and saw Sasuke jumping towards him; Naruto blocked the hit crossing his arms in front of his face, being sent back and landed safely on the other side. Turning around he saw kunai and shuriken flying towards him, he dodged most of them by quickly side stepping but one managed to get him on the leg making him fall to his knee, Sasuke threw another fireball towards him.

Sasuke looked pleased at the small crater that he left with his fireball but his expression quickly changed when he saw Naruto standing in from of him surrounded by a bubble of water, doing a snake seal, the water flew towards Sasuke who threw himself to side to avoid being hit by the massive current of water, before he could react Naruto did a leg sweep making Sasuke jump back, however he did not notice the clone behind him, while he was in the air the clone hit him on the face and into the ground, he managed to get on his feet quickly, unaware that the was another Naruto behind him Sasuke jumped backwards to create more space between them, only to be kicked on the back towards the original who jumped and hit him on the chest sending him again into the ground.

"He's done for, thanks guys," Naruto said to his clones before they disappeared.

Naruto turned around and started walking away, Sasuke was already on his feet and had a furious look on his face "I'm an elite ninja, I can't loose to the likes of him" he though as he reached for his shuriken, and threw them at Naruto, who only heard the clash of metal with metal and turned around to find Anko standing between the two of them.

"Pathetic!" Anko yelled furious at Sasuke "Attacking a fellow ninja from the back, you're not only a disgrace to all Konoha's shinobi, but to your clan too" hearing this Sasuke charged furiously at her, in a blink she grabbed his punch and in turn hit him with full force on the face, knocking him out. "What a disgrace" she said as she walked to where Naruto was standing.

"That was a good fight" she said smiling and placing her hand on his shoulder.

"I guess" he replied with a grin. "Thanks for the help."

"Oh don't mention it, I was just passing by and decided to look at the match" she said.

"Really?" Naruto asked not believing her completely.

"Well…that and it's time to increase the weight" she laughed.

"I knew it." Naruto said sighing with a smile on his face.

…

Naruto opened his eyes and got out of bed, he looked through the window to see Konoha still in darkness. "Its dark" he though "Well of course is dark, its 5 in the morning" he quickly told himself as he left to the bathroom, he took a quick shower and got dressed, when he was leaving he heard Anko calling him.

"Leaving already?" she asked.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei told us to be ready at six" Naruto replied with a long yawn.

"Your instructor is Kakashi? Oh you're gonna have it good" she laughed "Hey I'm leaving for a mission, I'll probably be gone a few months so I left you some money."

"Okay" Naruto said.

"Manage it well"

"I know." he replied putting on his sandals.

"Seriously, it is a lot of money, don't get all exited with it." she continued.

"Okay"

"And no girls allowed." She said taking a sip from her coffee.

"I know, Anko" he replied rolling his eyes.

"Okay, I was just saying, good luck on your first day." She said raising her cup of coffee as he opened the door.

"Thanks, good luck to you too, take care."

Naruto opened the door and left for the training camp, the streets were quiet, although there were some birds already chirping and the sky behind the mountains looked red as sun was making his appearance from the horizon, Naruto decided to run the rest of the way as a warm-up.

Naruto arrived at the training camp as instructed, a few minutes later Hinata arrived and lastly Shikamaru; and so they waited, Shikamaru took the time to go back to sleep, while Naruto trained and Hinata watched him, almost three hours later was when their sensei decided to finally arrive.

"Hello" said the masked ninja as he made his way to them.

"You're late…again!" Naruto said looking seriously at him.

"So troublesome" Shikamaru said getting up from his sleep

"I'm sorry, a black cat crossed my path and…" Kakashi didn't finish his sentence because of the death glare that all three of them were giving him.

"Anyways" he coughed " lets start with a simple exercise, here I have two bells, the objective of this exercise is to take the bells from me, if you can't do it…" he said pulling out a bag with three boxes inside "I'll eat your lunch in front of you, isn't this fun?" he said eye smiling while he hooked the bells to his belt.

"And a piece of advice. You won't be able to take the bells unless you come at me with the intention of killing, do you understand? Alright, BEGIN!" The three genin disappeared from sight, leaving Kakashi alone in the middle of the field.

"And now I wait" Kakashi said walking carelessly and taking his book out of his pocket.

…

"So what do we do?" Naruto asked to his companions.

"This will be troublesome" Shikamaru said scratching the back of his head "he is a jonin, and he has more experience than all of us combined."

"So…we're screwed?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow.

"I think I have and idea. Hinata, your byakugan will be very useful, and Naruto, you have large amounts of chakra, that will come in handy too. Now, this is what we're going to do…"

…

"They sure are taking their time" Kakashi though as he walked through the small forest area he was in.

"Finally" he though, ducking as several kunai and shuriken flew above him embedding into a tree.

"That won't work" Kakashi said reading his book.

Naruto charged him throwing several combinations of punches and kicks, which Kakashi easily blocked and dodged using his free arm, he didn't even appeared to be paying attention to him. Naruto tried to kick him on the side, but he grabbed his leg and using his weight threw him to the ground. "I've got to admit it, you're abilities are quite good" Kakashi said eye smiling from behind his book, "But alone you're not much of a challenge."

"Well, the let's fix that." He did a hand sign and several clouds of smoke covered the space between him and Kakashi, revealing several clones after the smoke cleared.

"So young and you already know that jutsu, you are full of surprises" Kakashi complimented. "All right, I guess I have no choice but to take you seriously." He finished putting his book on his back pouch.

Naruto and his clones started to slowly surround Kakashi, who didn't looked the least worried.

Two of the clones pulled out kunais and lunged at the white haired ninja who only side stepped and grabbed the arm of one of them, impaling his weapon on the other clone, then twisted the arm of the one he grabbed making him dropped the kunai, which he kicked into his chest dispelling it.

Like on quote the rest of the clones charged him, one of them did a sweep, forcing him to jump, while another was thrown by another clone towards him, Kakashi twisted his body in mid air, and kicked the blonde clone on the back of the head, sending him crashing face first into the ground.

"Rookie mistake number one…just because the enemy is mid air, doesn't means he's open." The one eyed ninja said as he touched ground again. "You may be the Rookie of the Year, but you're still a rookie."

Naruto frowned, even though he knew he was just trying to make him loose focus, but perhaps it would be better of he though it was getting to him.

Three more clones rushed at him from three different directions, Kakashi dodged a hit from behind, and blocked a kick from the side, pushing the clone aside, he jumped towards the third one, and delivered a powerful kick to the face of the blonde in front of him, crashing into a tree, dispelling itself. The other two rushed at the same time, he ducked a kick and hit the clone on the stomach, before blocking several punched that were sent his way, he hit the clone on the face, taking it off balance, a finished it with a round kick, as for the last one again tried the kick, only to be completely stopped, Kakashi hit his leg hard and punched it on the jaw, only to dispel after hitting the ground.

"Nice quantity of clones, which means that either you're already running out of chakra, or you have a lot of chakra…I'll go for the latter, since you still look too fresh, as for technique, your clones have no style, they fight as individuals, not as a group."

The blonde created another set of clones, revealing three clones after the smoke cleared.

"Only three? Suit yourself." The jonin said.

Two of the clones charged, making Kakashi sigh, as Naruto apparently paid no attention to what he was saying, only to be knocked back when the two clones started to fight complimenting each other, making it hard for Kakashi to keep up. Even with sudden surge of ability of the clones they were defeated, although this time he did took several hits.

Before he could say anything, Naruto and his clone jumped at him, giving everything they had, the original did a round kick that Kakashi dodged doing a handspring, but was hit on the arm and side by the clone who jumped back creating space between them.

Kakashi looked at the two clones in front of him, grabbing his right arm, which felt limp.

"Looks like you hit a nerve" Kakashi said massaging his arm.

He charged at the two, when two other clones jumped from the sides forcing him to twist himself awkwardly to avoid being him, the two clones crashing against each other dispelling, Kakashi landed with a roll only to be received by several faint hits on his right side and leg, making him jump back.

He felt his leg go limp and had a tingling sensation on his side.

"How?" Kakashi mumbled struggling to stay up from his limp leg.

He was about to make his move when he felt himself unable to move, only looking to his side when he heard noise coming from there. Shikamaru walked out fo the bushes as he maintained the rat seal with a small smile. Kakashi looked back at Naruo and his clones, only to reveal the clone being Hinata in a henge.

"Well, that makes more sense. And it makes look bad, I assume that you figured the point of the exercise then?" Kakashi asked now able to move.

"Of course, we had no chance of getting the bells on our own, we had to work as a team to get them…how troublesome" Shikamaru said releasing the technique making him fall from his still limp leg. Hinata approached him and activated her byakugan, softly pressing her fingers on his right side, leg and arm, as he regained movement.

Kakashi eye smiled at his team as he stood "since you did such a good job, you can have the rest of the day, meet me here at noon tomorrow" Kakashi said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"That was fun." Naruto said as he jumped around the place.

"What a troublesome guy" Shikamaru said sitting on the ground.

Hinata only smiled at her two teammates.

COUPLE MONTHS LATER

"This is nice" Naruto said stretching his arms above his head.

"What is?" asked Chouji with his mouth full of food.

"You know, hanging out." Naruto said calmly, earning nods from all of them. "not that we did that too much before or during the academy." He finished taking a sip from his drink.

Since their duties as genin had started they hadn't found the time to hang out, and now all of the Rookie Nine, minus Sasuke were there.

"Well you know, we…uh didn't knew you that well before." Ino said trying to reduce the sudden tension that was brought by the previous comment.

"Don't worry about it. I wasn't too normal back then, I'm not that normal right now, now that I think of it." he chuckled.

In minutes everyone went back to what they were doing before; Ino and Sakura were talking about… girly stuff, Shikamaru was looking at the clouds through the window struggling not to fall asleep. Shino watched a small beetle crawl up the wall with incredible concentration and Naruto was talking to Kiba while Hinata petted Akamaru.

"I tell you man, Sasuke needs to get over himself," Kiba said a bit louder than usual.

"What do you mean?" The blonde boy asked taking a mouthful of food.

"Well, he's always rambling about how superior he is, it is very annoying, he is always going about how he is too good to do menial tasks, or help us do the menial tasks, by the way. That he should get a real mission, we are genin, what kind of "interesting mission" does he expects the Hokage to give us? He finished.

"Last time he even confronted the Hokage about him not giving him the missions he deserves. Can you believe that? I really felt bad for Asuma-sensei, I really don't know how he can stand him" Sakura said getting into the conversation.

"You know we will have our first C-Rank mission tomorrow, we have escort some old guy to the Country of Waves" Naruto said proudly.

"Kudos to you" Ino said happily.

"I hope it's not too troublesome," Shikamaru said still looking through the window.

"Everything's trouble for you" Naruto pointed out getting a little laugh from everyone.

They finished their meals and after talking for a few hours everyone said their goodbyes, and left. Naruto walked back to Anko's place as the sun started to get down being the Hokage monument enlarging the shadows of the buildings and people on the streets. He reached the apartment and opened the door, turning on the light and looking around. She still wasn't home.

He let out a sight and turned off the light of the main room walking around for several minutes looking around, and walked through the small corridor to his room, entering and closing softly the door behind him.

"I hope she's alright" The blonde though as he slipped into his pajamas and got into bed. "When are you going to come back?" he questioned as he looked at the sky through his window, until he fell asleep.

…

The next morning Team 7 gathered early in front of the main gate to leave with the guy they were supposed to protect, they received the last minute instruction from the Hokage and after receiving the green light, they parted to the Country of Waves.

* * *

**Ta Da! How did you like it?**

**I shoved like six or seven chapters into a larger one, which I think is of enjoyable size. The next one will be of about the same length , maybe a bit shorter, but that depends on how many content I lay on it.**

**But whatever, I hope you liked it, I know I did. I hope you're all having a good time, and I'll talk to you later. Bye :D**


	2. B-Ranked Mission andThe Country of Waves

**Another chapter revised. I think it's pretty good, I checked several times, but I'm human probably several mistakes around.**

**Anyways. ENJOY :D**

* * *

They had been walking for a few hours though the dirt road, it was a nice day, and the wind blew softly as the clouds moved on the sky covering the sun. They walked at a steady pace, after agreeing on not stopping until nightfall, in order to maximize their time, earning some complaints from the lazy Nara, who was left with no other choice than to agree with the rest of his team, and even still, every now and then he muttered "what a drag" under his breath.

Even though they had been out of the village a few times before, and wanted to get to the Wave Country as fast as possible they were taking their time to look at the nice scenery that surrounded them.

Kakashi and Naruto were covering the rear behind Tazuna and in front of them and Hinata and Shikamaru were walking, talking softly, Kakashi was, as always, reading his book, when his reading was interrupted by the blonde.

"Uh, Kakashi sensei?" Naruto said, as he got closer to the one eyed jonin, and pointing at a small pool of water at the side of the road. Kakashi nodded in acknowledgement before saying something to his ear, to which Naruto only nodded and moved towards their teammates.

Two figures started to form from small pond, now a few meters behind the group, both of them wearing a large metallic claw on their hands, they were about to lunge at them when one of the kids fell to the ground and a smoke bomb went off. They quickly jumped out of the way, hiding at the side of the road, waiting for the smoke to clear out.

One of them let out a small chuckle, amused at how his heart started to race because of the sudden surprise; as soon as the smoke cleared they looked at each other and nodded before jumping out of their cover towards the largest threat. In a quick and precise movement Kakashi was surrounded with a barbed chain that was strapped into their gauntlets and pulling it with force they tear his body to shreds. "The first one" one of the men said grimly as they disappear in a blur appearing behind Shikamaru who quickly reacted jumping forward barely escaping the sharp chain, he moved backwards, as the two men, moved in complete synchrony aiming the chain to his neck, but he managed to dock the blow before the chain was embedded into a tree because of a well aimed kunai. Seeing their main offensive weapon had been neutralized, they released the chain from their gauntlets before they jumped back into combat. Each pulled out a kunai, and lunged at the black haired boy, who jumped backwards to avoid the hit and before they were able to make their second attack, one of them was grabbed from behind and thrown into his partner, both of them crashing at a tree and into the ground, they were already trying to get back up, when their bodies stopped responding them.

"That was scary" Shikamaru said as he walked out of some bushes with Naruto and Hinata. The blonde performed a hand sign and the ones that appeared to be the team dispelled leaving only a trail of smoke behind, Hinata activated her byukugan and quickly delivered a volley of hits on the men who fell unconscious, allowing Shikamaru to release his jutsu and Kakashi to remove their gauntlets and tied the men up.

Tazuna exhaled in relief, as their lives were no longer in peril.

"Good work, team" Kakashi said seriously crossing his arms on his chest.

"H-How did you knew?" The old man asked still trying to calm himself as he dried sweat from his forehead.

"Well, this has been a rather hot season, it hasn't rained in a while, it is rare to see water on the ground, luckily Naruto noticed it" Kakashi explained calmly.

"I see" Tazuna said exhaling again.

"But before doing anything else…" Kakashi said signaling him to follow him " I need to speak with you.

"G-good work Naruto-kun" Hinata said twiddling with her fingers.

"That was troublesome, but well done Naruto." Shikamaru said placing his arm behind his head.

Kakashi and Tazuna returned after a few minutes, Kakashi looked a bit worried which in turn worried his team, since he was never worried.

"All right team" Kakashi said clapping his hands to get their attention "About the mission, it might not going be as simple as a escorting mission, the ranking has changed from a C-Rank to a B-Rank" he said as he adjusted his headband slightly.

The three genin had confused and worried looks on their faces, and it was not a surprise a B-Rank mission was intended for chunin and jonins to complete.

"So what are we going to do now?" Naruto asked breaking the silence.

"We have no choice but to continue our mission." he answered with a sight.

"We just can't get it easy can we?" was all Shikamaru commented.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" Hinata said almost whispering.

"It is, but we have the duty to complete the mission, this is what you'll be dealing with from now on, missions won't always go according to plan. I'm afraid our only choice right now is to keep moving. Stay close, and keep your eyes open." Kakashi said very seriously as he started walking.

* * *

They kept walking, more aware now than before, for obvious reasons, it was getting darker, and they decided to stop and make a camp; in a matter of minutes they had tents up and a bonfire lit. And were discussing the details of the night watch.

"I'll probably stay up all night, so I will take the first shift, after that, Hinata, your byakugan will be useful when its darker, so I'll wake you up first. We'll wake Naruto to take the third shift, his Kage Bunshin can be good to spread the security perimeter a bit more, and then and finally Shikamaru a few hours before dawn. Got it?"

"Yes" the three genin replied in unison.

"Good. Now let's get something to eat, before starting the watch."

* * *

Kakashi and Hinata walked around the fire as Tazuna, Naruto and Shikamaru slept. Things had been quiet a full moon shined above them, lighting faintly their surroundings, they were in silence as they focused on detecting any menace that might appear, but, so far every thing seemed fairly safe; noticing the fire was dying out due to the wind he sat down on a tree stump near the fire, throwing a few more branches to keep the fire alive.

"So…how are you holding up?" Kakashi asked stretching his arms.

"F-fine." The girls stuttered twiddling her fingers.

""You really are shy." He said with a soft laugh, making her look at the ground in shame.

"Which is not really a bad thing, but that's what I wanted to talk about about. Like I said it's not bad to be shy but you're not just that, you are insecure, and that is a bad thing. In fact I've noticed that you train more than the others and any task that you have to do by your own you perform perfectly. Which is not a strange thing, most shinobi do their best work when on solo missions. But you also seem to loose that confidence when around others. You must believe in your own strength and abilities if you want to have any chance of surviving as a ninja. Because that is the difference between life and death actually…" he said looking at the sky with a nostalgic look. "…A split second when you hesitate, and…you're gone." He looked back at her, who was now looking at him. "I've seen you skills, and I'm sure that you will become a great ninja. The moment you lay aside you insecurities and start believing in yourself."

There was a brief moment of silence while his words sank into her mind, she only raising her head and nodding with a determined look.

Kakashi smiled at the girl. "Now go get some sleep, and think about what I said."

**A FEW HOURS LATER**

The sun was rising from the horizon, Shikamaru let out a loud yawn stretching his neck as everyone else got up while Kakashi stored the supplies on a bag. Once they were all up and accounted for he gave the signal to start to move.

"So, how far are we from our destination?" Naruto asked trying to read the map that he was holding.

"At this pace, probably a day if we don't stop to rest." The jonin responded as he turned his map on the right orientation. "But let's assume that we'll take at least two days more."

They kept walking outside the roads for several hours careful not to attract too much attention; they were not talking as they were focusing on not being ambushed.

They stopped to take a small break, in the meanwhile Kakashi instructed Naruto to send a few shadow clones ahead to scout before moving out.

While they were waiting Shikamaru took the chance to take a short nap, Tazuna quickly mimicking the lazy boy and taking too a nap, Kakashi watching carefully the surrounding from the top of a tree. Hinata walked to where Naruto was meditating and sat silently besides him. He opened one eyes and looked at his partner on the corner of his eye, and took a deep breath before speaking.

"How are you?" he said startling the girl.

"Um, I'm fine, thanks…you?"

"Can't complain." he said with a grin on his face.

"Naruto-kun, ca- can I ask you something?" she said shyly.

"Yeah, sure" he responded.

"Do…you think I'm insecure?" she asked rather straightforward.

"Well, uhm. I think that you are…too shy." He said after a few seconds while scratching the back of his head. "…Insecure maybe a bit, like when we meet somewhere you are just standing, but you seem to shake it off after a while."

"So…" she said looking back at him.

"Long story short. Yes. I think you're shy, which I don't really mind. Insecure, at moments, you could, like, work on it?" He explained.

Just as he finished talking he felt the experiences of the clones coming back to him, he grabbed his head as a sharp pain crossed through his mind letting out a brief groan.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asked concerned.

"Yeah, my clones just decided to dispel at the same time." He said with a chuckle, rubbing his temples with his eyes closed. "I'll go inform Kakashi-sensei, why don't you wake up Shikamaru and Tazuna-san?"

"Y-yeah."

He jumped to the branch Kakashi was sitting while watching the road. "My clones have dispelled." Naruto said getting his attention.

"Oh, any news?" Kakashi asked standing and tapping his pants to remove the dust form them.

"There is a river several kilometers to the north, there was a man camping near the shore, he didn't look like much, but I can't really be sure about it. He could just be staying for a while."

"Good job" Kakashi said placing his hand on his shoulder. "Looks like Shikamaru and Tazuna are up. Let's get moving."

* * *

They reached the tree line near the misty shore, there was a man sitting over there near a small fire, while Kakashi though about a way of figuring out if he was a friendly or a foe.

"Guys." Tazuna said pulling them out of their strategy. "That is our ride to my town. We'll have to make the rest of the way through the water, it is the safest way to reach my town without attracting too much attention." Tazuna explained walking and greeting the man.

"Alright, get in." the man said politely as he put out the fire and cutting the rope that tied it up to shore.

The man did not used the motor of the boat, instead he rowed all the way, slowly and silently, there was a thick mist that didn't allowed them to look more that a few meters ahead, so they made their way slowly, careful not to crash to a rock or log that may be surfacing through the dark cold waters.

"What a drag" Shikamaru said trying real hard not to throw up.

"I-I think this is nice" Hinata said as she inspected their surroundings with her byakugan.

"Is that a bridge?" she asked turning to Tazuna.

"That's right. That's the bridge we are building to connect our country to the main land."

"Tazuna-san. I have to ask you this, for both your sake and ours." Kakashi said "The people that are after you…who are they?"

"One man. You probably have heard his name before. Gatoh" Tazuna said.

"As Gatoh, from Gatoh Company?" Kakashi asked getting a nod in response.

"He came a while ago using violence and blackmail to get in control of our trafficking control. And since the beginning of the bridge construction, many workers have been threatened and injured to stop the progress. If we could finish the bridge all his power over our country would disappear. We just need a little more time."

He was giving his explanations as they passed through a small tunnel, light shining on the other side; as soon as they came out they were surrounded by blue crystalline waters with a few trees growing there, they made port in silence still thinking on what they had just been told and continued their way.

"Quite a change of scenery" Naruto said really exited.

"You're right" Hinata said

"What a troublesome climate" Shikamaru said exhaling and scratching the back of his head.

"The sun is setting" Kakashi said. "We make camp here, and we move at first light."

* * *

They walked for a few minutes the road looks clear, at least until they heard Kakashi yelling them to get down, which they did, barely avoiding the huge sword that had been thrown at them with incredible force and incrusted on a tree nearly cutting it in two, in a blur a man retrieved the sword and jumped in front of them holding the oversized sword in their direction.

"Stay back!" Kakashi ordered as he readied himself pulling out a kunai from his pouch and getting into stance.

"Jejeje, Kakashi of Konoha, I must tell you how pleased I am to finally be able to fight you, taking this job might be better than I initially though, although I didn't expected him to be guarded" the man said with a clear grin under the bandages that covered his mouth pointing at Tazuna with his huge sword. "I'll be sure to charge extra. Oh but where are my manners? I did not introduce myself, although I'm sure you already know who I am, don't you?"

"Zabuza Momochi, The Demon of the Mist" Kakashi said as he reached onto his headband and pulling it up with his free hand, revealing his hidden eye, which was red and spinning.

"Honored to see your infamous sharingan." Zabuza said forming a ram seal taking a few steps back as a heavy mist formed around them "If anything I'm glad you're using it, I wouldn't feel right if I killed you without you fighting at your full strength." he said disappearing inside the mist.

"Get in formation, and stay back" Kakashi commanded looking around "This isn't a fight in which you can help me."

The mist seemed to get thicker by the minute, making them unable to see more that a few meters in front of them, even the air got heavier, creating a very heavy aura around them.

" Well, whom should I start with?" Zabuza spoke still hidden in the mist "Perhaps the sweet Hyuga Heiress, her eyes could have a very high prize with the right people."

Kakashi tighten the grip on the kunai he had in hand. "I won't let you lay a finger on her, or any of them." Kakashi hissed scanning the area carefully. The aura was getting even heavier with every passing moment, as they tried to locate their enemy, he felt a knot on his stomach as he tried to predict from where the strike would come. The three genin stood around Tazuna holding a kunai tightly, Kakashi seemed to notice, since he turned around to face them "Don't worry, I won't let my comrades die." he finished with his signature eye smile.

"Well, since I can't decide…" Zabuza said with an evil laugh before appearing between the three genin and Tazuna with his huge sword ready to strike "…I think I'll kill you all."

Time seemed to freeze as Zabuza prepared to strike them all down with a single movement, however he wasn't able to move as much as he struggled to move his body.

"What the hell?" Zabuza though.

"You were to busy taunting my students, that you didn't notice him doing the seals for his jutsu." Kakashi explained walking towards them. "Now you die." He said before lunging at him and stabbing him on the chest.

It appeared a victory, but there was something wrong, Zabuza's body wasn't bleeding, instead water was coming out of the wound, seconds later the whole body turned to water and fell into the ground with a splash.

"A water clone?" Kakashi said turning around to see Zabuza with his sword up in the air, without any chance to react Kakashi was struck down with a single strike, to the shock of his students and the bridge builder, creating a sinister grin on Zabuza's face, however he was surprised to see that the body he had just struck down turned too into water.

"Impressive" he though as he turned and blocked two kunai that were flying towards him lifting his massive sword with ease, and jumped into action swinging his sword towards Kakashi, who managed to deviate the heavy blow with a kunai, forcing the blade into the ground, but Zabuza, being the able fighter that he was, turned around and delivered a reverse roundhouse kick on Kakashi`s head, sending him into the mist, grabbing his sword on the other hand he prepared for a second strike, but hit nothing but air, since Kakashi disappeared from his sight.

He scanned the area for a few seconds looking closely to the mist and smiled.

"Using the mist against me?" he asked walking into the lake and performed several hand signs, from the lake in front of him Kakashi appeared trapped in a sphere made of water, Zabuza performed a hand sign, and water stirred in front of him, creating a clone of him, who started walking towards the three worried genin.

"I'm really disappointed. I expected a shinobi of your caliber to be… more skilled." Zabuza sighed while Kakashi pulled out a kunai and slashed the sphere, scratching the surface, which quickly regenerated, earning a laugh from the Demon of the Mist "Don't waste your energy, this sphere is unbreakable form the inside."

"Dammit, this is going to be hard" Shikamaru said shaking a bit as he prepared.

"W- we can take him" Hinata surprising his teammates as she rarely took the initiative a more because of their current enemy.

Naruto only smiled as they all readied themselves to fight.

"Get away!" Kakashi screamed as he punched the interior of the sphere holding him prisoner.

"Don't worry sensei." Naruto said going through several hand signs. "We do not let our comrades die."

Naruto and Hinata charged at the man, Naruto trying to deliver an overhead kick while Hinata targeted his torso, but the kick was blocked by the sword, before spinning out of the way, dodging Hinata's hits.

Naruto fell on his feet after his kick being blocked, and charged again, creating another two clones on his sides, the three of them jumping towards Zabuza from all sides but to no avail, with a single swing a clone was split in two, leaving only a trail of smoke behind, while the other was blocked with the sword and kicked back, before the original received a lariat on his collarbone sending him with fore against the ground and knocking the air out of him.

Shikamaru enlarged his shadow trying to connect it to Zabuza's but he quickly jumped back several times, until he reached his maximum length, forcing him to pull it back.

Hinata took the opening to lunge at him but he sidestepped dodging her attack and planted his knee on her abdomen, so hard she threw up, before being kicked back to where his teammates were.

"Are you okay?" Shikamaru asked helping Hinata get up

"He is too strong" she replied getting up clumsily.

"He said the sphere couldn't be broken from the inside. Didn't he?" Naruto asked

"Yes. Why?" Shikamaru asked.

"I have an idea" Naruto answered with a grin.

**"Suiton: Water Bullets"**

Naruto threw several kunai and spat several bullets of water from his mouth, absorbing the kunais inside of them; they flew in Zabuza's general direction, which make him raise an eyebrow as they missed him completely. "You need to work on your aim" Zabuza mocked as continued to hold Kakashi prisoner.

"I wasn't aiming at you."

Zabuza looked at the prison, the kunai pierced through the barrier, and had an iron thread attached to them, with a movement of Naruto's arm the top of the sphere was removed and Kakashi jumped out of it before it closed again.

"Damn you kid. I have really underestimated you." He laughed.

He blocked a slash from Kakashi as his clone charged the three genins.

Naruto created several shadow clones and charged at Zabuza's water clone attempting to kick him on the head, the water clone easily ducked and responded with an uppercut to the blonde clone who disappeared leaving smoke behind, he, in several swift movements of his huge sword, quickly took care of the remaining clones, and turned to face Naruto and his teammates.

"Is this the best Konoha has to offer? I guess releasing you sensei must have been ajust luck. They don't train genins like they used to, what a shame." Zabuza's clone said letting his sword rest on his shoulder.

"What would you know? A ninja that betrayed his village, you are the shame" Naruto countered pulling out a kunai holding it tightly.

"Oh? Is that so? So tell me, on how many actual fights have you been? How many times have you been forced to kill another man? You kids know nothing; I bet you became shinobi as an attempt to gain fame and recognition. Well, I'll tell you the terrible truth, there is no such thing as fame and recognition in the shinobi world, shinobi either die on duty, or live long enough to turn against their village after realizing how full of shit they are." He said coldly.

"You're wrong, I would never betray Konoha!" Naruto yelled stepping forward.

Zabuza let out a loud laugh "Yeah, I'm sure you won't, you look exactly like the guy that would blindly follow whatever order they give you…you're just a puppet…" he let out a sight again holding his sword in stance. "But since you seem happy about it…I'll give you a puppet's death."

Naruto charged at him, trying to hit him with his kunai, but the blow were easily dodged by a side step, being grabbed from the shoulders and thrown with force against a tree near the lake.

"A-are you okay Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked getting near his fallen teammate, clearly worried about the state of his teammate, and helped him up as blood came out from his nose and mouth.

"This is nothing Hinata-chan, my fault for rushing like that." said Naruto as he stood up by himself and cleaned the blood from his face using his sleeve.

"Naruto" Shikamaru said jumping to where they were. Worry on his tone "I think I have a plan, but I need you to buy us some time."

Naruto nodded in agreement as he created several dozens of shadow clones and charged at Zabuza in an attempt to gain a little time.

Zabuza grinned at the attempt, it was fun to watch them struggle against him. And Kakashi could only look brief seconds of their fight, as Zabuza was giving him no room to help them.

Soon only a few clones remained, and Naruto was panting heavily, getting real tired, all those clones used quite a bit of his chakra, his few clones lined up and charged at Zabuza's clone, as he prepared to swing his sword he again felt his body get rigid, and gritted his teeth as he noticed that again he had fallen into the boy's jutsu, he looked at them as he struggled to move but it was to no avail, Naruto's clones ran towards him and each of them pierced him with a kunai, making it disappear in a pond of water.

"Quickly, we must help sensei" Naruto said signaling his companions to follow him.

"No!" Kakashi yelled at them kicking Zabuza on the chest to create space between them. "I'll finish him off now." Both of them performing hand seals at incredible speeds.

**"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu."** Both of them yelled as two whirlpools started forming behind both of them as they slowly started to take the form of two huge water dragons that clashed against each others as Kakashi and Zabuza too clashed in combat, between the two water creatures. Kakashi's dragon consuming Zabuza's becoming bigger. Zabuza tried to hit him with a vertical slash, only to be grabbed and thrown over Kakashi, before the liquid dragon consumed him and slammed his body against a tree,

Kakashi walked slowly towards Zabuza's body with a kunai on hand. "This is the end" Kakashi whispered to him as he prepared for the killing blow, but someone win him to it, as two senbon hit Zabuza's neck, killing him instantly, Kakashi looked to the direction they were thrown to see a boy standing on the branch of a tree, he immediately recognized him because of his mask as a Kirigakuge hunter-nin, the boy jumped down and slowly made his approach to Kakashi.

"I will take body with me" said the hunter in a polite tone of voice.

Kakashi nodded and got out of his way; the boy picked Zabuza's dead body and performing a seal with his hand disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

"That was troublesome" Shikamaru said now standing helping Naruto stay on his feet.

"That was a Kiri ninja wasn't him?" Hinata ask with her new found confident voice.

Kakashi nodded as he pulled down his headband to cover his sharingan. "We need to keep moving, we're almost there."

"You'll be able to get enough rest when we reach my house" Tazuna said with an exited voice.

They started walking again, when Kakashi suddenly felt his energy leaving his body as he fell on one knee, he could feel a pounding on his head as his vision turned blurry "Guys…" he said grabbing his head. "I don't feel too good." He said in a low voice before falling unconscious on the ground.

* * *

Three days passed since the fight with Zabuza, Kakashi's body due to the prolonged use of his sharingan and the strain of the fight gave out, it was, however nothing a few days of rest wouldn't fix, his body needed time to replenish its chakra and regain energy, until then, he had to stay in bed; he sent word to Konoha, that he needed support of another team, during the wait he just hoped that the Hokage wouldn't sent Gai as support, as much of a great ninja as he was, hearing him give a speech about youth and other nonsense would drive him crazy, the Hokage sent team Asuma, with his three genin students, Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka and Sasuke Uchiha who arrived a day after he called for support and had asked Asuma to train them while he recovered.

* * *

A girlish boy sighed as he finished pulling out the last senbon from the large man's neck.

"Uh, I feel like I've been run through by an army." Zabuza said as he slowly sat down massaging his neck.

"Well actually that was me, I had to fake you death." the boy said with a smile while cleaning his tools.

"Be careful next time." Zabuza said as he moved his neck and groaned as his muscles stretched "That felt all too real."

"I had to make it look as real as possible, I couldn't take any chances" the boy said with a smile still on his face. "You wont be able to move normally for a week, so don't put too much effort on your body."

At the same time a short fat man entered the room, followed by two muscular goons "So, word has reached my ears that you were defeated by a bunch of kids, maybe your usefulness has reached its end" with a sign of his hand the two goons pulled out their swords and walked towards Zabuza, in a blink the boy twisted their arms pointing each other swords against each other.

"If you even try to touch Zabuza-san I'll kill you" the boy said as he pushed the two men towards the fat man.

"You're pushing it Gatoh, I'll take care of it, now GET OUT!" Zabuza yelled as his killing intent filled the room.

* * *

Asuma led the two teams to a small clear on a forest next to a small lake.

"Alright…" he began while lighting a cigarette. "I'm going to teach how to control you chakra properly, as you should know when you use a jutsu, you use your chakra, but if you do not have proper control, you'll end up either not casting the jutsu properly or wasting chakra, which will wear you down faster, now, you're going to be doing something easy: climb trees"

"Hell yeah, I'm on it!" Kiba yelled as he ran to a tree, only to stopped by Asuma by being grabbed by his hood.

"No the usual way" he said exhaling the smoke before turning around and walking up the tree vertically.

Everyone was really exited to start the new training, except for Naruto and Sasuke, who didn't seem even fazed by the display.

"Uhm, Asuma-sensei" Naruto said as he approached the tree and started walking vertically on it, much to everyone's surprise "I uh, already had this training" he said with a smile on his face.

"I see" he said grabbing his chin. "Well then I have another training that might help your chakra control, everyone grab a kunai and use it to mark your progress" with that said he and Naruto walked over near the lake. Naruto stopped at the border but Asuma kept walking on top of the water a few meters before turning to face him. "Okay, this exercise is similar to the tree climbing, but obviously on water, you need to focus chakra on the soles of your feet to be able to keep yourself from sinking, however, the tension on the water changes, and so you need to keep adjusting how much chakra you use, with practice you'll do it without thinking, come on, give it a try.

Naruto walked slowly towards the edge of the lake, and focus chakra on his feet he gave a step on the crystalline water; unfortunately he wasn't able to give another before sinking.

"Okay, just keep practicing. You'll get it eventually." Asuma said lighting another cigarette. And walking past him to where the others were. "If you have any questions just give me a shout.

* * *

The time passed quickly as everyone did their best to improve their chakra control, Sakura, Shikamaru and Hinata quickly go the hang of the tree climbing and were sent over were Naruto was training, he was drenched as he gave few steps on the surface of the water before sinking. Hinata and Sakura were listening closely as Asuma explained them what they needed to do while Shikamaru though about how troublesome would be getting wet.

Kiba was having a bit of trouble with the tree climbing but was making good progress.

Sasuke could feel anger coursing through his body, not only he wasn't able to master a basic training, but he was on the same level of the Inuzuka, he had to be the best, there was no option.

* * *

Back at Tazuna's house Tsunami had cooked a great meal for them, since they had been training all day, Kakashi was already able to move with the help of crutches, and was already sitting at the table when they arrived, they sat down and started eating, Sasuke just ate bowl after bowl, even faster than Chouji, while everyone else, well, stared at him swallow the food, at least until he ran to the bathroom to empty his stomach, which gained a laugh from most of them at least until he returned.

"You shouldn't eat so fast, Sasuke-kun" Hinata said as he dived into another bowl, he only glared at her before continuing.

"Don't waste you breath Hinata, he doesn't listen to anyone." the Inuzuka said earning a glare from the Uchiha and returning him one of his own.

After dinner Shikamaru went directly to sleep no bothering on taking a bath like the rest did, after the shower, a few screams and a beaten Inuzuka everyone went to sleep, but Naruto for some reason couldn't sleep, the moonlight illuminated the room he was sharing with the rest of the boys, he got up and trying to be as quiet as possible sneaked out, Kakashi noticed it, but he decided to let him go.

**NEXT MORNING**

"Where the hell is Naruto?" Sakura asked getting worried.

"Maybe he went to the forest to train?" Kakashi suggested shrugging, as he already knew he was out, and most likely training. "You guys go check that out, I'll go with Tazuna-san to the bridge.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, and looked around, did he really fell asleep in the forest? He yawned and stood up, stretching and hearing his bones crack, he was going to walk when something caught his attention on the corner of his eye, there was a girl on pink kimono picking some flowers, he was curious as of what someone would be doing there and walked over to her, laughing internally as he was there too.

"Uh, Hello" Naruto said as he leaned over her trying to be friendly.

"Oh, hello" she said with a bright smile.

"Oh, uh, my name's Naruto, what are you doing here?"

"Haku, I'm picking some herbs to make medicine for a friend, what were you doing?"

"I…was training late at night, and I think I just fell asleep."

"If you haven't had breakfast yet, you could join me and my friends, you have a lot in common with Sakura and Hinata, I'm sure you girls will get along fine.

"Oh well, I don't know" Haku said "By the way I know I don't look like it, but I'm actually a boy"

Naruto's jaws fell all the way to the ground.

"I know. I get that a lot." He finished getting up a patting him on the shoulder.

In the background he started hearing voices calling his name.

"Those are my friends, looks like I got them worried" he said scratching the back of his head with a grin "so what do you say, want to have breakfast?"

"I don think-"

"Come on, it will just be a while" Naruto said not letting him finish his sentence.

"I'm sorry, I can't." he said.

In the distance Naruto heard his teammates calling his name, he turned his head trying to pinpoint the location it was coming from "Are you su-"

When he turned his head again Haku wasn't there anymore leaving Naruto alone, he scratched hi head in confusion before going to reunite with his friends.

* * *

"Have you found him Akamaru?" Kiba asked to his ninken as he sniffed the ground and barked. "Good, come on guys"

Soon enough they found Naruto.

"Where the hell have you been? Idiot!" Sakura said hitting him on the back of the head.

"Training" he chucked rubbing the back of his head.

"Training?" the Uchiha asked, suddenly interested in the situation.

"How troublesome, only you would train instead of sleep" the Nara said with a yawn.

"We should head back now." Hinata suggested.

They walked back into the house; just as they were entering they found Kakashi ready to leave with Tazuna to the construction site.

"Feeling better Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"Yes Hintata, I must say, you medicinal ointments really do wonders." he said as he reached to his pouch and counted his shuriken.

Hinata gave him a shy smile as he walked past him and sat at the table.

"Ready to leave Kakashi?" Asuma asked him.

"Yes, actually I was hoping to take some of the genins with me, it might give them some experience."

"Good idea. Sakura is pretty much done with chakra control so how about she goes with you?" Asuma asked placing a cigar on his mouth.

Sakura jumped of excitement; she was finally going to do something other than training "Of course I want to go" she half yelled at Kakashi "I'll go get my things" and with that she ran into the room not really allowing him to said anything.

"Wait, I should be going too. I'm better that her." Sasuke interrupted before Sakura came back.

"For what Asuma has told me you still don't have the proper chakra control, Sakura on the other side is one step ahead of you on it, she is more suited to go with me than you" Kakashi said with a harsh voice, not liking the tone of the young Uchiha. "Hinata, Naruto, you can come too." he said turning his attention from Sasuke.

"I would like to, but I think I'd rather stay here training, I still haven't got the hang of this water walking thing." Naruto said as he sat down.

"Okay, how about you Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sighed, "I guess it is better than staying all day here training, I'll go get my things." he said lazily walking back to the room.

A few minutes later, Sakura, Hinata and Shikamaru got ready, Tsunami gave them some boxes with food for the day, while the rest of them ate at the table.

As soon as they got ready they left for the construction site.

* * *

"Your body is not ready yet" the boy said to Zabuza who didn't pay attention to his warning as he got dressed on his combat attire.

"Just wait a little longer, four days are not enough." he continued.

"I tell you, I'm fine" Zabuza replied as he grabbed his sword and strapped it to his back. "You too get ready, I will probably need your help keeping the brat occupied."

The boy sighed as he agreed in silence and walked over to the other room to grab his gear.

"Are you sure you're ready?" The boy replied putting on his mask.

"Yeah" Zabuza replied patting him on the head.

Both of them got geared in silence, not ten minutes passed before both of them were ready not speaking they looked at each other before disappearing in a blur.

* * *

"Man, this so boring" Shikamaru mumbled walking around the construction site.

"You can always go back and continue your training" Kakashi said paying little attention to the whines of his student to which he was already used to by then.

"I'm fine." he sitting down on a bench.

* * *

The morning passed normally, without incidents, although because of the constant mist the workers were taking it slowly as to not cause an accdent with the machinery.

Grabbing their things they left the site to eat, they weren't gone more than an hour, but they were shocked when they found most of the working crew unconscious when they returned.

They were alive and barely wounded, which made Kakashi feel relieved, but his relieve did not lasted long, someone had to be responsible of that, but his internal questions were interrupted when they started to get surrounded by mist, really fast.

"It's the same technique from before." Shikamaru stated getting a kunai from his pouch.

A tall figure started to appear from the mist, followed by a shorter one, Zabuzawalked towards them until he was a few meters away from them, and grabbed his swords letting it rest on his shoulder, while the shorter man whom had been recognized as the one that "killed" him, held several senbon between his fingers.

"It the end of the line Kakashi" Zabuza said pointing his sword at him.

"Sakura, go back to Tazuna's house and warn the others." Kakashi said stepping in front of them and uncovering his sharingan.

She nodded in understanding and ran past them at full speed.

"Haku, take care of the brats" Zabuza said before lunging into Kakashi with a swing of his sword as Haku charged Shikamaru and Hinata.

* * *

Kakashi deflected the blow with a kunai and spun his body to kick Zabuza in the chest, sending him a few meter away from him, not giving him time to recover he jumped in the air to kick him again, but he moved out of the way rolling to the side, and swinging his sword horizontally attempting to cut Kakashi in half, he ducked the blow and tackled Zabuza to the ground, and started hitting him as hard as he could, but he was kicked away towards a concrete wall.

Ignoring the pain of his back Kakashi stood up quickly to get ready for the next attack, but Zabuza wasn't in sight, getting ready he grabbed another kunai, looking carefully around him, in a split second Kakashi lifted his arm to block Zabuza's sword, which came flying towards him and deflected it to the side, embedding itself on the hard floor.

Zabuza then lunged at him in and doding a volley of kunai and shuriken, kneed him on the stomach forcing the air out of his lungs, and repeated the motion to hit hom on the face before hitting him on the face and throwing him towards several crates on the other side of the bridge. Slowly Kakashi got back on his feet, he blocked Zabuza's punches and kicks, he blocked a right hook and hit him on the abdomen with his left hand before head-butting him on the face. Gaining some distance form the masked ninja with several long handsprings Zabuza retrieved his sword, and swung it at him, Kakashi ducked under the sword, dodging it by millimeters, and then charged at him with kunai on both of his hands, sending sparks as the pieces of steel collided repeatedly.

* * *

Haku had Shikamaru and Hinata against against the ropes, his speed vastly surpassed Shikamaru's forcing him to be on the defensive, several sanbon had hit him on the back and legs while Hinata was pretty much untouched except for a few cuts on her arms.

Haku charged at him, starting an intense fight, Haku having the advantage, he was faster and stronger, there was not much he could do but to try and defend himself, in a surprising movement the boy grabbed his arm, and threw him against the concrete wall, smashing his head with it, disorienting him as he saw everything spinning around him it took him a few moments to get back up, the boy much to his surprise, did not attempt to attack him while he was down, instead focusing on Hinata who was taking the offensive against the masked boy. He skillfully dodged her hits, knowing that she was a user of the juken style and one hit would hindrance his performance greatly.

Jumping forward he swept his leg making her loose her balance and fall to the ground. Shikamaru seeing she was losing took a deep breath before charging at him, he did a round kick but Haku blocked it with his arm, he tried to hit him with his other leg, but Haku ducked and grabbing his body on mid air, slammed him into the ground breaking several ribs from the impact and making blood come out of his mouth from the injury.

"I'm sorry, I really don't want to do this…but such is the path of a shinobi." Haku said as he performed several hand signs, the water around them turning into ice spikes floating around the masked boy and heading slowly towards Shikamaru, who rolled to the side dodging the spikes while Hinata jumped towards Haku who side stepped and hit her on her lower back paralyzing her and doing a round kick on her head sending her to the ground.

He walked slowly towards her pulling out a knife from within his robe. "This is the end" Haku said softly as he raised his hand. Only to be stopped then a shuriken hit him on the mask making him give a few steps back from the impact.

The girl who had ran away moments before the battle, a blonde and dark haired boys and a tall bearded man.

"Sakura, stay with Tazuna. Naruto, check on Hinata, Sasuke assist Shikamaru." Asuma instructed as je ran to where Kakashi was fighting.

* * *

Kakashi was relieved to see they made it in time. He did not saw Kiba, which meant he probably stayed back to look after the house, he kept blocking Zabuza's furious strikes, and he had been hit on his left arm, and was bleeding heavily. Asuma went through the hand signs and spat a black smoke screen that lighted on fire when he clashed his trench knives together.

"Are you okay Kakashi?" Asuma asked standing besides him.

Nodding in acknowledgement he made some hand signs creating a clone in front of him, he lunged at Zabuza, only to be sliced in two by the waist. But as soon as the sword finished the cut a blue light came out of the clone, arc of electricity travelling through the sword and reaching the tall man, whose back arched as the potent electricity made his muscles spam uncontrollably, until he fell on one knee, avoiding barely another smoke screen that lighted on fire by rolling to the side.

"Electricity clones?" he though as he got back up and tried to regain his breath.

"This will be more interesting than I though"

* * *

Naruto created several shadow clones to assist Sasuke while he checked on Hinata, who was lying unconscious on the ground; she appeared to be all right, except for a few cuts and bruises.

Naruto's shadow clones tried to hit the masked boy, but he proved to be too fast for him, even with the training he had, he dispelled clone after clone with precise hits, Sasuke appeared behind him, and did a round kick to the face, which was easily blocked, but was taken off guard when it disappeared in a puff of smoke, before the real one lunged at him with a flying kick that hit him straight on the chest, sending the masked boy back as he crashed to the concrete wall.

"I guess I have no choice" the boy said as he stood back up "**Makyo Hyosho**" the water on the ground started giving away a faint white light as it froze around Sasuke. The water started to create large rectangular figures around him creating a sort of dome of mirrors. All of them pointing towards him. The masked boy walked towards one of them and pushed himself into it. In a matter fo seconds he was all around him, a copy of him on each mirror. Sasuke could feel the piercing gaze coming from all side, Sasuke smirked at the display, but it was nothing he could not overcome.

"How easy" Sasuke growled "**Katon: Gyokakyo no Jutsu**" he took a deep breath and spat a huge fireball that clashed against the ice mirrors, but to no avail, there was no sign of the mirrors melting or being slightly damaged.

Haku sighed as he explained Sasuke that those mirror were not made of ordinary ice and that using such low level techniques would no weaken them in the slightest that of course ignored by Sasuke who continues to throw fireballs all around him, hoping to at least damage them.

On the outside of the dome Naruto was giving Shikamaru a quick first aid. He had a few senbon on his back an legs, but they did little to no damage so he just bandage them quickly after disinfecting the wounds, the greater matter was that he had two ribs broken, and there was a chance that he also has a pierced lung. He applied a tight bandage on his torso making him groan in pain. "I'm sorry, I have to keep it as tight as possible." He said finishing the bandage application. But was distracted as from the newly formed ice dome flames poured out from between the mirrors.

"I have to help him." Naruto said.

"Are you sure, you will probably be trapped inside with him." Shikamaru said with difficulty.

"Yes, you stay here and try to think of a way to destroy those mirrors." Naruto finished running towards the dome.

Shikamaru watched as his teammate entered the dome through one of the separations. Sitting up slowly he started to formulate a strategy, but he had never seen anything like that before, that was probably an S-Rank jutsu and did not know how to counter it. With a groan he pulled out an explosive tag and threw it with a load moan of pain towards the mirror, but half of Haku's body came out and deflected it with, exploding far from his target, Shikamaru gritted his teeth, his friends, or at least Naruto, were trapped inside probably being slaughtered and there was nothing he could do about it.

* * *

The fight was prolonging more than Zabuza would like, together Asuma and Kakashi were a force to be reckoned with, he had a few burns on his left side form the constant fire attacks and several cuts from the close combat. They were about to go at it again but were distracted by something growing out of the ground.

"What the hell is that? Asuma said as the structure took the form of a dome around his student.

Zabuza let out a brief chuckle as he tells them about Haku's Kekkei Genkai. Taunting them about how anyone trapped inside were good as dead. That in fact if he was still alive was because Haku wasn't ready to kill him yet.

Zabuza held firmly his sword, rushing at them, Kakashi was out of patience and tired of that game, he nodded to Asuma, who took a firm grip of his trench knives and blocked the blows from the massive sword. Meanwhile Kakashi performed several hand signs and grabbed his right wrist as he channeled his chakra to his right hand creating a blue aura on it, small lightning arcs appearing from the center of his palm until it covered it completely taking vaguely the shape of a knife, he charged at Zabuza running as low as he could to increase his speed, his sharingan spinning madly as it keep up with the speed. He let out a scream to which Asuma's reaction was to roll out of the way. He hit the sword breaking it near the handle and not sending a shock to Zabuza, who softened his hold of the sword, allowing Asuma to kick it out of his grip, and then both of them with a quick look to each other agree on what to do and kicked Zabuza hard on head, successfully knocking to the ground and into a wall.

"We must help them." Kakashi said looking back at the ice dome as he heard the clashing of metal inside.

"Go! I'll keep him busy." Asuma said.

* * *

"Dammit, dammit, dammit" Sasuke growled as he release another fireball into the mirrors.

"I already told you, such low level techniques are useless." The boy said jumping to another mirror after another attack.

"Why doesn't he just finish us off?" Sasuke said as he picked himself up.

"I don't know. We need to get out of here. What do you say? You go one way and I go the other the other?" Naruto said looking at Sasuke, he nodded in agreement as both of them ran in opposite directions.

Haku sighed as he understood what they were trying to do jumped to a mirror in front of Sasuke kicking him back to the center, and repeating the move in Naruto. Immediately jumping to the top mirror throwing a volley to Sasuke, hitting him on his legs and back, making fall down on the ground as he covered his face and chest from the iron needles raining over him. Naruto tried to help him up, he stood in front of him deflecting the needles with a kunai and was struck on the neck and chest with several projectiles, he tried to stay up, but his wounds bleeding profusely, he was at his limit, and pulling the metal stick from his neck he finally collapsed on the ground.

Sasuke got up and walked over to Naruto, whom was bleeding from the small holes the needles left after being removed.

"Hey, get up! Come Naruto" Sasuke yelled at him as he to get him to get up.

"Dammit." Naruto said in a whisper. "I guess this is it" he said in a small chuckle.

"Dammit idiot, why did you come in here?" Sasuke yelled.

"Why?" Naruto said. "We're friends aren't we?"

Sasuke was surprised to hear that from him, he had never been even slightly polite to him. Yet he considered him his friend. "Yeah… I guess." He replied picking him back up.

Both of them got up and into stance. Naruto was struggling to stay on his feet but he leaned on Sasuke for support. Haku prepared another volley and he jumped from mirror to mirror. But he seemed to have missed. No. He didn't missed. They dodged it. He though maybe they got lucky, after all he was, too, getting tired. Dismissing the though he prepared another volley. But after another, attack he realized there was something wrong. His movements, from the black haired boy, were different he was not moving randomly anymore. He was precisely moving out of the way of his projectiles, pulling the blonde too.

He analyzed carefully the boy; he jumped out of the mirror into another one in front of him. It was after he moved out of the way that he noticed it. His eyes had a red glow as he looked at him.

"Sasuke you..." Naruto said as he struggled to get back up.

"I've awakened the sharingan." Sasuke said triumphantly with a smirk.

Haku released another volley only to be dodged again. He too possesses a Kekkei Genkai. I can't drag this any longer. I'm running low on chakra; I have to finish this now.

He prepared to lunge at them; ready to finish the fight when he felt his chakra getting disrupted he couldn't jump out of the mirror. Instead being pulled out from the mirror as they shattered away.

* * *

"How's the situation?" Kakashi asked as he helped Shikamaru get up.

"They are trapped inside that dome, Hinata is unconscious, if she could use her byakugan to analyze that dome I could try to figure out a way to destroy it.

"There's chakra flowing through the mirrors, and he jumps from one to another, he is very fast." HInata said soflty as she pushed herself to her feet with help of Kakashi.

"Are you okay?" Shikamaru said.

"Y-yes" she responded.

"Did you find anything?" Kakashi asked, getting really impatient.

"If you hit the mirror he is in, that might disrupt the chakra flow, cancelling the jutsu."

"I already tried that, he deflected my explosive tag, apparently he can also attack to the outside" the Nara explained as he inspected the dome with care "but, I saw the technique that you used against Zabuza, that was an elemental technique right?" Kakashi nodded "if you can direct all the chakra into one place, that might shatter the mirror, forcing him out…only, he's too fast."

"I'll take care of that." Hinata said stepping forward.

Kakashi nodded in agreement and performed the necessary hand seals for his technique and started to gather chakra into his palm while Hinata followed the movements inside the dome, she could see the masked boy jumping from mirror to mirror at high speeds while Naruto and Sasuke tried to avoid being hit, for the last few sweeps they managed to avoid the projectiles.

"He stopped, upper middle mirror" Hinata said only loud enough for Kakashi to hear, he had his eyes closed as he channeled his chakra, and as soon as she finished talking small arcs of electricity started to appear between his fingers, rapidly turning into chirping arc of electricity, he opened his eyes and charged towards the mirror, jumping and slamming his fingers into the mirror at first it appeared as if nothing happened, but after a few second the impact made small cracks in the mirror, cracks that started to grow, the boy was thrown outside of the mirror with force as the other mirrors shattered and turned into water.

* * *

Haku was shocked, to say the least; no one ever had managed to cancel his Demonic Mirror jutsu, not that it mattered too much, his chakra levels were low, he would had been forced to stop the jutsu soon anyways, he got up slowly, with heavy sweat under his mask, he didn't even got up when he felt a blunt pain on his side, that sent him a few meter away, again tried to get up and saw Sasuke and Naruto standing beside his companions, he threw several shuriken at them, but they blocked them throwing their own. He tried to stand, when he finally did, he found himself unable to move, he looked around and saw his shadow connected to the guy he had fought first, Naruto rushed at him and hit him with all the strength he had left crushing his mask and sending him against the concrete wall of the bridge.

Asuma had been keeping Zabuza at bay, without his sword, and with him already tired of fighting against Kakashi, it hadn't been that hard, mostly countering his blows and dodging whatever he threw at him, he notices when the dome disappeared, which meant they had successfully defeated the boy or found a way to dispel his jutsu.

Haku got up in a clumsy fashion, helping himself with the wall, there was blood coming out from his mouth, he looked at the group in front of him.

"You?" Naruto said shocked of recognizing the boy in front of him.

"Naruto, you know him?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto nodded and explained what had happened in the forest when he had left during the night to train.

"Why did you do it?"Naruto asked taking a step forwards and spreading his arms.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, I'm but a tool of Zabuza-san, I will do whatever he tells me." he said with a sad smile "It is not that I have anything against you, but now that I failed him, I'm no longer useful, please, kill me."

"With pleasure." Sasuke said stepping forward, kunai in hand.

Kakashi immediately stopped the boy by pulling him from the collar of his shirt.

"I want you to tell me something. Who hired you?"

"Guess there in no point in hiding it. It was Gatoh" Haku said with a sigh.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, stopping these two was not going to stop him, unfortunately, he could only focus on his current mission.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way" Naruto said as Kakashi went through the hand seals and lightning covered his hand, Sasuke only smirked, with his newly activated sharingan he had seen the hand seals for Kakashi's technique, the first of many to come.

"This is the way of the shinobi." Haku said calmly, closing his eyes waiting for the end.

* * *

The shock on everyone's face was obvious, especially on Kakashi's, Zabuza had lunged himself between Haku and Kakashi's technique, and his chest had been pierced; Asuma ran to their location, kind of ashamed that he wasn't able to stop him, should he had targeted someone else he would have probably succeeded on his attack, but it was not the case.

"Zabuza…you?" Kakashi said as he pulled his hand out of his body and laid it on the ground.

"Why?" Haku said kneeling beside his body, tears starting to form on his eyes.

"You're not a tool…" he said between coughs " …you are free to follow your own path, you must live for yourself, I'm sorry. I did not deserve you loyalty, Haku…I'm…"

Those were the last words Zabuza spoke; everyone was in silence, as tears came out from Haku's eyes.

"Well, the Mist Demon is dead at last" they heard from behind "now maybe I will be able to get my objectives done without that useless man getting in the way on every step."

They all turned to see Gatoh and a few hundred men, probably mercenaries behind him.

"Gatoh" Kakashi said.

"Hehe, unfortunately, I can't let you live, nothing personal, its just good business." he said with a sinister grin.

"How dare you" Naruto said "that man worked for you and this is what you have to say about him!?"

"I couldn't care less about him, he was just a tool for me, just like that boy was to him." Gatoh said signaling Haku.

"You bastard" Naruto said as he prepared to rush Gatou, but was stopped, Haku had placed his hand on his shoulder, he had a grim look on his face "Please Naruto-kun, let me handle this."

He walked to where Gatou was, mercenaries positioning themselves around their employer.

Haku started to release the few chakra he had left, along with his killing intent. A dark cold aura surrounding him, they chakra was freezing the water under his feet. He started to explain how Zabuza wasn't a tool, how he picked him up when anyone else would have just left him to die, he raised and trained him and so he swore to help him by becoming his tool, an extension of himself and now that he was dead he had nothing left to loose. And the only thing he could do to honor his memory was killing him. Haku released completely his killing intent, so strong even Kakashi and Asuma felt how their blood froze, he performed a single hand sign and his ice mirrors formed again, this time surrounding Gatou and the men that surrounded him, he entered without rush and the mirrors glowed with a bright blue light, and closing any gaps between them. Few minutes passed after he entered when he finally came out the full dome evaporated, everyone inside was dead, but it appeared that they fought between themselves rather than fighting against Haku.

He walked towards the group clumsily before stopping in front of Naruto. "I'm sorry. About everything" he said before everything turned black.

* * *

Haku opened his eyes slowly but closing them as the light hit him on the face, his body felt numb, he knew that feeling all to well, chakra exhaustion, he got up from the bed with a groan and sat on the corner of the bed, looking around the room he was in. He wasn't sure were he was. The last thing he remembered was using the variant of the Demonic Mirrors to kill Gatoh and his henchmen. But after that it was just dark. He stretched his body and walked through a small corridor, until he reached the main room, there he saw Naruto and the others sitting on a table.

"You're awake" Asuma said as he sat on a chair and started to eat.

"I- I don't understand" Haku said looking at them.

"Well… since you are not officially a Kiri-nin, and you were fighting for Zabuza as a mercenary, I saw no real reason to kill you" Kakashi said offering him a seat to which he complied.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Asuma asked the boy.

"I don't know, I've got nothing left." He said in a sad tone.

"You can come with us back to Konoha" Naruto said exited.

Everyone seemed to agree with the idea since they all smiled and nodded except for Sasuke who didn't looked to pleased with the idea of allowing the guy that almost killed them into their village and Kiba who didn't really had any idea of who he was.

"Do you want to come?" Kakashi asked him placing a hand on his shoulder.

He nodded with a smile "Yes, thank you"

* * *

**Second chapter - DONE**

**I guess it was okay, I liked it. And I hope you liked it too. :P**

**So, I was looking for a Beta, but I guess I would like that it is someone that is reading this FF. Any volunteers?**

**As you already know, tell me what you think, what you like, don't like, what you think can be improved and all those things.**

**Also, if you could be awesome and give me some advice regarding Ice and Wind techniques, it would be awesome.**

**Leave a review and well, you know have a nice day, or night...**

**Thanks guys. Take care and until next time. :)**


	3. Back Home

Kakashi and his team reached Konoha's main gate, followed closely by Asuma's team, the two guards on duty greeted them as the passed the large door and walked into the village. Naruto took a deep breath, happy of finally being home, the sky was getting red as the sun hide behind the mountains of the horizon. Asuma's team separated from them as team Kakashi made their way to the Hokage Tower, Kakashi had to deliver his report, which he had written during the way back every chance he had, not that he couldn't wait until tomorrow, but he didn't liked to elude this kind of things.

Haku stared at the large building, he looked quite serious as he inspected his surroundings, he wasn't sure as of how the Hokage would take his "request" to stay on Konoha, but according to Naruto it would be no problem, Haku wasn't so sure.

The five entered the building and walked up the stairs to the Hokage's office, and luckily for them he was still inside, the receptionist greeted them as they approached her desk, and signaled them to enter before getting back to her documents.

Hiruzen raised his gaze from his stack of papers to look at team seven, being accompanied by another person; he couldn't tell for sure if it was a he or a she. But greeted them as he stood from his chair. Kakashi handed him the report and started telling him about Haku's situation.

The Hokage heard everything, paying special attention to Haku's kekkei genkai, which of course could be helpful. "I see…" was all the old man said as he finished hearing Kakashi, he took a deep breath from his pipe and exhaled the smoke above him.

"And you want to stay here?" he asked to Haku as he watched him carefully, earning a nod from the young boy. He took another breath on the pipe, this time exhaling the smoke through his nose, spinning his chair and looking at the village through the windows.

"The council will not like it…" he said turning back at them with a serious expression. "…But then again, I'm the one that make the decisions." he said with a grin. He started stretching and retunring his chair to his original position, turning the pages on the report casually. "For what Kakashi has said, you're not affiliated to Kirigakure, which makes you more like a refugee, after what happen on the mist a few years back." He scratched the back of his head "Well, I'll look at the report more closely later. Now, you're all dismissed. Except you." He said pointing Haku. "I'd like to have a word with you in private."

The group left the office and walked out the tower. "Well, I guess, that's all for today. Considering the sun is already gone. Go get some rest and we'll meet here tomorrow morning to get our next assignment." Kakashi said with a yawn.

Naruto stood as everyone went their own way, he felt relieved of finally being back home. Naruto headed to the apartment. Walking through the now dimly illuminated streets, even considering his exclusion from society during his early years, the village was generally peaceful.

However there was something off, he could not let go the words of Zabuza, could he really take seriously the words of a missing nin and a mercenary?

He took a deep breath and exhaled as he kept walking, the usually lively streets now empty and silent as he walked down the road, his hands inside his pockets, the sun had already disappeared leaving the dark night sky to the full moon that appeared from behind the clouds slowly shining over the village, giving it a dim light.

He gritted his teeth as he grabbed his head, he would not believe it. He refused to believe that he was right. But then something popped on his mind. "The incident in Kirigakure a few years back." What happened a few years back? He would look into it. He had to. He took a moment to get his head in order before continuing walking.

He arrived at the apartment, opening the door with his key and stepping in to find a half naked Anko sleeping and drooling on the couch. Naruto le out a sight, as that used to be a daily occurrence, he grabbed a blanket from one of the drawers and placed it over her before turning off the lights and heading to his room with a yawn, he walked to the side of his bed and let himself fall on it, he was very tired, his body relaxing as it was being sucked into the soft mattress.

But his mind was still trying to figure out Zabuza's words, they were there spinning around his head. "Die on duty, or turn against the village." He refuted the idea with all his being, and yet, somewhere deep within him, it made sense. He covered his face with his arm as he rolled face down on the bed and allowed himself to fall asleep.

* * *

HAKU AND THE HOKAGE

* * *

Haku was sitting in front of the Hokage as he read the report Kakashi had just delivered him. The sun had finally disappeared on the horizon, and darkness engulfed the office, the only light was coming from a small lamp on the desk. He yawned softly, as he was tired from the journey and it was already late.

The Hokage closed the report and placed it on top of a pile of papers, leaning on the desk as he fixated his gaze on him.

He stared at him for a while before talking explaining how it was very good that Kakashi and his team were trying to help him out, but that it he really wanted to stay he would have to give him real reasons for him to allow it. It came as no surprise to him, it was only logical that he would not trust him; after all, he did attack his ninjas, nearly killing two of them.

"I'm nothing but a tool." He said calmly.

Hiruzen let out a sigh. "I don't need tools. I need reliable people. If you want to be a tool, you might as well work for Danzo. Come on kid."

"I…don't know. I guess the most honest answer I can provide is that I need a place to live. And I'm ready to work for it."

"It's a start." He said with a yawn and writing something on a piece of paper.

"Here, take this key. You can stay here for now, it's nothing special, but it is nice. Come and see me after you're settled. I'll give you some work.

Haku nodded and left the room following the directions given to him until he reached a small house. He entered and without much tough fell asleep on a small bed.

* * *

Anko's eyes opened slowly, she fell asleep on the couch, again, she straighten up and stretched her arms over her head, her back cracked as well as her shoulders, but now with the tension released she smiled, she looked over to the covers besides her, and asked herself when he grabbed them, but was distracted by a very nice smell that was coming from the kitchen, she headed over there and was surprised to see Naruto cooking breakfast.

"Naruto? When did you arrive?" Anko asked in surprise.

"Oh, Anko-chan. I wanted to finish this before you woke up. I arrived last night, you were asleep when I arrived and I didn't though it would be intelligent to interrupt your sleep." The blonde chuckled giving her a plate of eggs and bacon.

"Smart boy." She replied with a yawn. "It's good to have you back, I missed you." she said getting closer and kissing the blonde's forehead.

Both of them ate as Naruto told her about his mission, their encounter with Zabuza, and the fight on the bridge.

"Well you seem to have had a very, interesting mission." Anko said finishing her coffee. "Your first B mission. And as a genin."

"What about your mission?" Naruto asked her.

"Oh, well. You know I can't tell you much about it, being secret stuff and all, but there was a few sneaking here, some torture there. Overall your typical S-Rank mission…Oh and I got promoted."

"Sweet…wait…torture?" Naruto asked nervously.

"Yup." she said taking a seep from her coffee. "Why? Want me to teach you?"

"Uh. Nope."

"Suit yourself. You'll have to learn sooner or later anyways."

"Later will be fine." Naruto said with a chuckle "Well, I have to leave. We will get another mission today."

"Good, if everything you told me about last mission is true, then I'm sure you'll have no trouble." Anko said with a grin.

* * *

"Good morning." The Third said as the team entered his office. "I have your mission right here. You are assigned to clean the river outside the walls, near the former Uchiha Compound; the contaminated water is making some of the smaller settlements down the river sick. Get to it." He finished

The four of them walked out of his office seeing Asuma waiting outside the office looking rather anxious.

"Asuma, what are you doing here?" Kakashi asked him.

"I have been summoned to a council meeting. I'm waiting for the Hokage."

"The council? What for?"

"I don't know. It's never good though." He replied with a sight.

"Well, we have stuff to do, so, we'll leave you, good luck with…whatever." Kakashi said walking past him, followed by his three genin.

Leaving the Hokage Tower behind they headed to their destination. Shikamaru was as always complaining about how annoying it was to have a mission. Hintata walked in silence besides him listening to his complaining, and Naruto walked thoughtful behind them.

"You okay Naruto? You're awfully quiet today." Kakashi said pulling the blonde from his thoughts.

Y- yeah, I just have a lot to think about." He replied.

"Like what?"

"You know, personal stuff."

"I see. Well if you need any help, don't doubt to ask me." Kakashi said with a smile as they passed Konoha's main gate.

* * *

They arrived at the river, just outside the wall on the Uchiha Compound sector, it was a real mess, there was thrash all over the place, no wonder people was getting sick, Naruto pulled out a kunai and an iron thread and used them to improvise a net, which he threw towards a tree a bit further down the path of the river to create a makeshift wall to stop the thrash of keeping its course as they clean it.

"Where does all this comes from?" Shikamaru asked taking out a large bottle from the shore.

"Doesn't matter, we've got work to do." Naruto replied.

All of them started taking out the garbage from the water, all except for Kakashi, who jumped on a tree branch and started reading his book as his three genin got to the work at hand.

* * *

They were about half way there when a loud explosion, from behind the wall, distracted them; they managed to see a small pillar of smoke rising, and Naruto was already making a run for it when his sensei jumped behind him and pulled him from the neck of his shirt, he looked back at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Where are you going?" The masked ninja asked him letting him go.

"Well, there was an explosion…there could be injured people."

"Look, I know you want to help, but we have a mission right now, besides were in the village, I'm sure there is a team already checking it out. Let's just finish this."

Naruto reluctantly nodded, it made sense, and they had to focus on their task. He turned around and walked back to the river, creating a few shadow clones in the process to help speed up the process.

* * *

A FEW MOMENTS BEFORE

* * *

"Just a bit more…" Sasuke though, focusing chakra on his hand. Taking deep breaths as sparkles started to form on his hand, growing larger the more chakra he focused but the sparkles slowly started to decreased until they disappeared.

Gritted his teeth he kicked a rock towards a wooden fence. He had been training since before dawn, and he still couldn't do it.

He let himself fall and sat with his back leaning to a building. The Uchiha District. It had been years since the massacre, but he could still see the bodies laying on the ground, and the blood, painting the floor and the walls. He would avenge them, all of them. He clenched his fists and jumped back up. Grabbing his right arm he started focusing his chakra again. Using the anger recently awoken inside of him he formed large sparkles and ran towards a tree in front of him, with a growl he hit the tree, creating a large and loud explosion. After the smoke cleared out he smiled, seeing the large crated where the tree had stood. He grabbed his head, feeling dizzy he fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

"Is this him?" asked the head of Konoha's General Hospital. "Isn't him a bit…young?"

"Well, I've heard he has quite good medical skills." the Hokage said giving Haku a light pad on the shoulder.

"Well, if you say so. I'll give you something to do. Just hang on a bit."

He turned to the main desk and grabbed several charts, looking at them, as he appeared to try to decide which one to give him.

"Well, I have work to do. Good luck" the Third said with a smile leaving Haku on the reception.

The doctor approached Haku studying him with his eyes. "Have you ever treated someone?"

"Yes, sir."

"Drop the sir, kid. This isn't the military. Relax. Anyways…were did you learned?"

"On the field. I guess." He replied softly.

"Ah, then pressure won't be a problem for you. Good. We need people like that."

They were interrupted when a group of chunin entered carrying a young boy. Immediately the doctor stepped forward asking them what happened. And signaling them to follow him as they rushed down the corridor to the E.R.

"Hey!" he said loud enough for the young boy to hear. "Come on, we don't have all day."

Haku nodded and rushed behind them as they ran through the corridor.

* * *

TWO DAYS LATER

"So how is he?" Kakashi asked to Asuma.

"He's okay, he had a few cuts and burns, and was also suffering from chakra exhaustion."

"Do you know what he was doing?"

"No, but I intend to ask him about it when he wakes up." He said opening the door of the room.

He stepped inside and sat on the chair besides the door, crossing his arms as he waited for his young genin to wake up, and hopefully provide some answers.

The room was quiet, except for the muffled chatting of the corridor. Asuma was leaning on the wall, still on the chair his head resting against the wall, with a magazine covering his eyes and nose, and a cigar hanging on his mouth, as usual, the lights were off except for one on a corner, leaving the room in penumbra.

Sasuke's eyes open slightly, everything was blurry, and closed them again reaching his face with his hand. He blinked a few time to focus his vision, without moving, his eyes scanned the room. "A hospital?" he though, using his arms to pull himself into sitting position. His body ached and felt numb, also his hand stung and was bandaged his head gave him several acute stings on the sides; gritting his teeth he ignored it. "How long have I been here?" he said softly to himself.

"Two days. Three if you count the day you were hospitalized." Asuma said without moving. "You gave us quite the scare."

"Hmm." was the response of the young boy.

"Now I hate prying into people's lives, it's not really my style… But I have to ask you, what were you doing on the Uchiha Compound?" he asked raising his head, and removing the magazine from his face, his eyes fixed on Sasuke's.

"None of you business…sensei."

"Oh, you're wrong. It is my business why one of my genin students is on the closed Uchiha Compound, which given your case, most likely has sentimental value, and I get it. But why were you recovered from the site of an explosion?"

Sasuke didn't answered; he just stared at him with defiance in his eyes. Asuma exhaled and stood up.

Asuma's gaze seemed to pierce him as their eyes were fixed on each other's.

Sasuke let out a sigh and fell back on the bed. "I was training. Practicing a new jutsu."

"And how did you managed do such a crater?"

"Obviously I used to much chakra and couldn't control it." He responded annoyed.

"So you were practicing a jutsu, by your own?"

Sasuke nodded.

"You're lying aren't you?" Asuma let out. "Get some rest. Will sort this out later."

* * *

Haku left the hospital after finishing his shift; he would have to thank the Hokage for getting his the job.

It had been a very busy couple of days. A captain got sick for eating too much, and he was hospitalized to get a stomach cleanse, another being bitten by a poisonous spider, it was strange really a battle hardened shinobi had their lives in danger by the most simple things: food and bugs.

Anyway he managed to treat them in time, and both of them were discharged a few hours later. Now he was heading to his new home.

* * *

The Hokage's office was quiet as the moonlight vaguely illuminated the room; he read the report he had been given in silence, in front of him was standing a tall ANBU Captain with a hawk mask, in silence he waited for his leader to comment on the report he had gathered in the last two days about the boy that just arrived to the village.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow before speaking. "You have him followed and watched all the time?"

"Yes, sir." The man said stiffening hearing the voice of his leader.

Hiruzen nodded in acknowledgement as his gaze returned to the repot in front of him. He found interesting that during the supervised sessions of training he never used a single jutsu, but maybe he just didn't wanted or needed to, he was trained by Zabuza of the Mist after all. His medical abilities were also worthy of praise, being able to use a senbon with enough precision to simulate death, as he did during Kakashi's last mission, or completely paralyze the body, as was written on the report.

"These kinds of skills are no mere luck." He said closing the report and laying back on his chair, his hand resting on his chin as he though about the situation. "Has he done anything weird while he has been here?"

"No, sir." The ANBU replied calmly.

"I think…if he was planning to do something he would have done so already."

"Sir?" the ANBU said confused.

"Don't you think its weird two of our best captains got sick and were sent to the civilian hospital instead of being treated on a military one?"

"So, you used them as bait to see if he could be trusted?"

"No, god no, well…yes, but they volunteered, so they knew the dangers. But as I was saying, they did not mask the ranks as they were charged into the hospital, and he was the one that was treating them. He could have easily killed them."

"Tell him to come and see me tomorrow morning. You're dismissed."

The captain nodded and disappeared from sigh in a blur.

Hiruzen turned to see the mountains on the horizon, as the clouds covered the moon, darkening the landscape. Lighting his pipe he took a deep breath, his gaze fixed on the horizon. "I hope I'm right." He said.

* * *

The librarian shook Naruto's shoulder in order to wake him up and stop him from continue to drool all over the book his face was buried in.

"I'm sorry." He said getting up rather fast.

"Do you need any assistance?" she asked looking at the pile of books on the table.

"Thanks, but I'd rather do it by myself." With that the librarian nodded and left him.

He turned his attention to the large pile of books on the desk as he examined every single one of them, all were about Kirigakure, and even though he found interesting things, such as jutsus, training techniques, and the most intriguing, the reason why Zabuza was called "Demon" it. He found it funny how even though it was an alias meant to be feared it also commanded respect, especially since he had been called demon a lot of times, never with respect. Returning his mind to the reading he realized it truly was a brutal way of beginning a career as a ninja. But there was nothing else.

With a heavy sigh he stood up leaving the messy pile of books on the table and headed to the exit. Wandering aimlessly he found himself on a large park, near the center of the village. He yawned while sitting under the shade of a large tree. And closed his eyes briefly, heavy from the lack of sleep from the last couple of nights but opened them when he heard his name being called.

Lazily he opened one eye looking around to see if he could find who was talking to him, he pulled himself up, and leaned on the tree as he saw Hinata rushing towards him, she signaled him to follow him, which he reluctantly did.

She explained on their way to the tower that the Hokage had another mission for them and that it was urgent, she still didn't had all the details but apparently they were waiting for them.

"We looked in your home." But you weren't there.

"Sorry." He said as they ran. "I've been investigating something and I fell asleep on the library last night."

She simply chuckled at the comment.

Both of them walked to the Hokage's office, and found the rest of their team and Haku already inside.

"Good of you to join us." Hiruzen said. "I'm giving you this mission, because you have already experienced real combat.

"We've had reports of bandits pillaging an nearby settlement, located several hours form the village. Apparently they are hiding on a cave nearby. I'm sending all five of you to take clear them out. Which brings me to the next announcement. Congratulations, Haku Yukki, you're now an official chunin." He said unsealing a flak jacket. Offering it to the boy, who took it after looking at it for a few seconds. "This mission is a B-Rank, and you are in charge of leading this team…" The Hokage said "…and like I said before I'm giving it to you because you have combat experience. Kakashi will assist you in anything you need. Get you gear, you leave in an hour."

The five left the tower, congratulation Haku for being accepted on Konoha after only a few days of being there. He only nodded and excused himself, as he needed to get his stuff ready. Everyone else agreed to meet on the gates in an hour and headed on their own ways.

Naruto rushed to the apartment. Almost knocking down a lamp as he entered and headed to his room, opening the closet door he pulled out a dark red, long sleeved shirt and put it on over his mesh armor. He also grabbed black pants with pouches on his legs and his new black knee high boots. He opened a drawer and pulled out his kunai pouch and filled it with both kunai and shuriken, as well a handful of explosive tags before strapping it on. He looked at himself in mirror before leaving, noticing his hair was longer now, and with good reason, it had been quite a few months since he had it cut. He stared at his reflection for a while before opening another drawer and pulling out a thin piece of cloth. Pulling his hair back he tied it up on a small ponytail, with a bang of hair crossing his face. Satisfied with his look he walked out the door and ran through the rooftop to the main gate.

Being the first to arrive, he waited for a while until Kakashi arrived, without any hurry he leaned on the wall and pulled out his book, as he waited, next arrived both Hinata and Shikamaru they looked at each other as they waited for Haku to arrive so they could leave.

Finally after ten minutes of waiting Haku arrived, dressed in a dark blue long sleeved shirt, that was tight on his body, navy blue pants on his belts was hanging a black kama with white outline, falling from his sides, he was wearing his new flak jacket.

He arrived and pulled out two scrolls. From one he unsealed a katana, which he strapped to his left side. From the other he unsealed a mask, identical in design to the one he used when they fought on the bridge, but this one had no Kirigakure markings on the forehead, in fact it didn't had anything on it except for the red markings.

He put it on and asked them if they were all set, everyone looked shocked at the new appearance of Haku, he looked really intimidating. Kakashi smiled under his mask. Everyone nodded and ran towards the settlement at full speed.

* * *

**This one was...well hard to write, I still am not convinced that is that good, but every change I made was either irrelevant or it made it worse.**

**Anyways I guess I'm satisfied with the result, I played a bit with Haku's design at the end. And gave him a sword, he needs a sword :3**

**Overall you saw what is going on with the characters, still not much Anko-Naruto action, I'll get to that eventually, don't you worry.**

**Also I wan't to thank koryandrs for beta reading the story.**

**As always I ask you Review the story and to tell me what you think, everything helps improve the writing process :D**

**Take care, bye!**


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